(Oemar) OS van der Woerd MSc

Oemar van der Woerd (1993) is working as a PhD-candidate ‘Shared governance in healthcare’ at the section Healthcare Governance and the Erasmus Centre for Healthcare Management of Erasmus School of Health Policy and Management, at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

His research and teaching interests pertain the unravelling of governance challenges in contemporary healthcare for health service delivery, and are mainly grounded in qualitative methodologies. The PhD trajectory is supervised by co-promoter Wilma van der Scheer, PhD and promoter prof. Roland Bal, PhD.

Shared governance in healthcare
In line with changing views on the welfare state, relationships in contemporary healthcare between citizens and organisations, patients and professionals are subject to change. Individual organisations as the locus of control seems no longer suitable. His research therefore focuses on new forms of shared governance between organisations (on regional level). What are governance practices and how are responsibilities shared? The extensively use and emphasis on ‘networks’ as collaboration form for integrated care services raises questions about governing processes among policymakers and representatives of health care organisations (such as health executives), health insurers and inspectorate agencies.

Regionalisation of Elderly Care (RegioZ)
Another research project, RegioZ, focusses on how elderly care is increasingly organized in geographical regions, urging for more collaborative care practices between primary care, nursing homes, home care, mental care, municipalities, health insurers, and policy agencies. In collaboration with local healthcare providers and local and national policy agencies, experiments are conducted with alternative types of care, reconfiguring traditional boundaries between healthcare organizations and practitioners. His contribution focuses on the use of Public Administration theories.

Passionate about governance challenges, (elderly) care and the intertwinement of research, education and involvement in society, Oemar’ has a strong belief that co-creation is of added value. In his spare time he is involved in knowlegde exchange and entrepreneurial activities for the further development of the Surinamese healthcare sector.

Teaching
He participates in several teaching activities, such as the master programme courses Governance & Strategy and Advanced Research Methods. In the bachelor programme Health Sciences, he is involved in Science Philosophy and several serious games.

Study background
Before starting his PhD project, he obtained a bachelor degree in Health Sciences and master degrees in Health Care Management and Public Administration (Policy and Politics), all at Erasmus University Rotterdam.