(Marthe) M.J. Stevens

Marthe's current research project focuses on Big Data in the healthcare sector. Big Data raise high expectations in the healthcare sector. It is thought that Big Data will offer immense opportunities and will radically change the way care is provided and research is being conducted. As a result, Big Data would lead to more personalized, efficient and effective medical care. Yet, critics emphasize that the Big Data developments are being exaggerated and that, for example, security and governance issues should first be solved.

Her PhD research will position itself between the utopian expectations and the criticisms that surround Big Data, by doing in-depth empirical research into the practices of big data. The goal is to ethnographically explore what Big Data is and what role it can have in healthcare. In addition, her research will help shape and when necessary intervene, in the Big Data developments. The sheer volume, velocity and variety of data make it hard to study Big Data ethnographically. Therefore, her study will also explore how something as obscure as Big Data, can be studied ethnographically.

Marthe is also a member of the WTMC graduate school.