PhD position Decision-making about Sustainability in Healthcare

Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM) is making substantial investments into research & teaching in the area of Planetary Health, including this exciting PhD opportunity. Planetary Health has both mitigation and adaptation aspects, and this PhD position focuses on decision-making in healthcare to mitigate the impact of healthcare activities on the environment. A second PhD opportunity at ESHPM is related to the adaptation aspect of planetary health.

Job description
While the goal of healthcare is to maintain or improve the quality of life of individuals and populations, it is at the same time a sector with significant negative impact on the environment. The healthcare sector is a considerable contributor to climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource depletion, and therefore harms population health through the same activities with which it tries to improve. In this context, at the beginning of 2023, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) identified the main knowledge gaps in their study of the interplay between environmental changes and human health and drew up a comprehensive research agenda, completely focused on Planetary Health. A systems thinking and transdisciplinary approach is necessary to address the knowledge gaps and create sustainable healthcare for all.

This PhD project is focused on the mitigation aspect of planetary health. Specifically, the project is focused on how to evaluate sustainable interventions (e.g., products and technologies) as alternatives to current/traditional products and technologies.

In order to reduce the negative environmental impact of healthcare, alternative products, pharmaceuticals, processes, protocols, procedures and care pathways need to be developed and implemented. A more sustainable alternative needs to be compared to the current practice. This requires a multi-criteria comparison on sustainability, cost, health outcomes, safety/risk and work pressure, among others. In some cases, the alternative scores positive on all dimensions, yet, in many cases, tradeoffs need to be made. Not all performance dimensions can always be quantified. Hence, research is needed into structured approaches, both qualitative and quantitative approaches, to compare two or more alternatives.

Many stakeholders are struggling with these issues of quantification, prioritization and tradeoffs. For example, healthcare providers must balance the needs of patients, healthcare professionals, infection prevention, finance & accounting, legal affairs, and society at large. Suppliers in the healthcare supply chain want to understand how healthcare providers define sustainability, how sustainability is prioritized vis-à-vis other performance dimensions, and how sustainability is operationalized. Policymakers would like to have tools to value sustainability amidst other decision variables. All these stakeholders are interested in evidence-based tools for multi-criteria decision-making with respect to sustainability in healthcare.

The PhD candidate will be based at the section Health Services Management & Organisation (HSMO) at Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM), a faculty of Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR). Strategically, ESHPM is investing in three main themes: Planetary Health, Sustainable Workforce, and Global Health. Through these initiatives, ESHPM is at the forefront of shaping healthcare policy and management, innovating for a sustainable future in healthcare.

As part of the Planetary Health theme, you will develop your skills and competencies related to systems thinking, qualitative interviewing, health technology assessment (HTA), (environmental) life cycle assessment (LCA/E-LCA), health impact assessment, multi-criteria decision making (MCDM), and structured qualitative assessment.

As a PhD candidate in this role, your research will not only contribute to academic knowledge but also have practical implications, influencing policy decisions and healthcare practices. You will be working in an exciting, dynamic academic environment, under the guidance of leading experts in the field. Your work will involve systematic literature reviews, data collection, mixed methods research, and analyses. You will play a crucial role in collecting information and providing recommendations, helping to fill the current knowledge gaps B312, B412, B421, B431, C133 and research theme D13, as identified by KNAW in its 2023 Planetary Health report.

You, as a successful applicant, will perform the research project outlined above in a multi-disciplinary team. The research will be concluded with a PhD thesis. The project is supervised by Prof. dr. ir. Erik M. van Raaij and Dr. Chiara Cadeddu, with further members of the supervisory team to be decided later.

The tasks include:

• Further developing and implementing the PhD trajectory;
• Publishing scientific articles and a dissertation on the research;
• Developing tools (e.g., a toolkit, e-learning, podcast) to disseminate the knowledge from the project;
• Initiating and participating in knowledge transfer to external parties;
• Following additional training in research methods and theories;
• Providing education within ESHPM for approximately 15% of the appointment.

Requirements

• You hold a master’s degree in health sciences, social sciences, environmental sciences, data science, operations research, operations management, or another related Master’s programme.
• You have a strong affinity with interdisciplinary research and working with academics as well as key stakeholders in the field, preferably in the healthcare sector.
• You have affinity and experience with planetary health.
• You have strong analytical skills and demonstrated research competences for performing qualitative, quantitative and design science research.
• You have the ability to work in a multidisciplinary team, and navigating and managing complex, multi-stakeholder settings involving technology experts, industrial partners, and other societal stakeholders.
• You like to take initiative and you are able to work on a challenging topic that has both basic and applied research aspects.
• You have excellent social, communication and organization skills to work effectively in a university and industry setting.
• Your verbal and written communication skills are excellent, your proficiency in English is excellent (C1 level) and knowledge of Dutch language is an advantage.
• You are a team player who wants to contribute to the research agenda of ESHPM.

The anticipated start date is November 2024, at the latest.

We offer you an internationally oriented and varied job in an enthusiastic team, with excellent working conditions in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU).

The start date of this position is 01-NOV-2024 and you will be based at Campus Woudestein in Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM). This position is for 0.8 fte - 1 fte. The salary ranges from a minimum of € 2.770 to a maximum of € 3.539 gross per month Scale PhD on a fulltime basis (38 hours), in accordance with the CAO-NU. The contract is entered into for the duration of 18 months with the intention of extending to a total of four years.

Everything else we offer you, you can find below!

• Everything you need for a good work-life balance: the option to work from home in consultation with your manager, 41 days of paid leave with a 40 hour contract, 8% holiday pay and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus, and a significant discount on a subscription for our on-campus sports centre!
• Sustainable, inclusive and diverse work environment with an open culture, where you can be yourself and we pay attention to each other and to the world around us. Make the most of our bicycle budget, or join networks such as Young@EUR, FAME or QuEUR.
• Time and space for your development in the broadest sense: development days and a personal career budget and free access to our university library.
• Good pension with ABP that EUR contributes 2/3rds towards, discounts on various collective insurances with Zilveren Kruis Achmea, Loyalis, and Allianz, and compensation for travel, working from home and home internet use.
• Are you currently combining your job with parenthood, or do you want to do so in the future? EUR offers partially paid parental leave and fully paid additional birth leave for partners, and our campus features a daycare (daycare not paid for by EUR).
• Moving to the Netherlands for your job with EUR? Then you may be eligible for the 30%-ruling if you meet the requirements of the Belastingdienst (Dutch tax agency), and with our Dual Career Programme we will also help your partner find the right job for them.

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) is an internationally oriented university with a strong social orientation in its education and research, as expressed in our mission ‘Creating positive societal impact’. EUR is home to 4.100 academics and professionals and almost 33.000 students from more than 140 countries. Everything we do, we do under the credo The Erasmian Way – Making Minds Matter. We’re global citizens, connecting, entrepreneurial, open-minded, and socially involved. These Erasmian Values function as our internal compass and create EUR’s distinctive and recognizable profile. From these values, with a broad perspective and with an eye for diversity, different backgrounds and opinions, our employees work closely together to solve societal challenges from the dynamic and cosmopolitan city of Rotterdam. Thanks to the high quality and positive societal impact of our research and education, EUR can compete with the top European universities. www.eur.nl.

Faculty / Institute / Central service
The Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM) is a leading institute in the Netherlands, specialising in healthcare policy and management across disciplines like economics, law, socio-medical sciences, organisation science, and public administration. Located in the Bayle Building at Erasmus University Rotterdam and closely associated with Erasmus Medical Centre, ESHPM educates about 1,600 students and employs around 200 faculty members, focusing on internationalisation and multidisciplinary research.

ESHPM has launched in 2023 its investment agenda to reflect in response on global challenges that we are facing, composed by four themes: Planetary Health, Global Health, Workforce Challenges and Data Access and Infrastructure. The Planetary Health Theme is aimed at looking for adequate responses, both in relation to reducing the ecological burden of healthcare and by improving the resilience of communities and the healthcare system.

Strategically, ESHPM addresses three main areas in planetary health: reducing the negative contribution from healthcare to the planet ecosystems (mitigation), aiming for sustainability in healthcare; mediating on health consequences caused by the triple planetary crisis – climate change, biodiversity loss and global pollution - (adaptation), through individual, community and health systems resilience; decrease the impact of health issues on healthcare systems, by improving prevention and preparedness (healthcare resilience). Through these objectives, ESHPM is at the forefront of shaping healthcare policy and management, innovating for a holistic and sustainable future in healthcare.

The scientific focus of the HSMO department broadly covers the domain of Health Services Management & Organisation. The teaching is mostly organized around the MSc program in Healthcare Management, which is the largest program in this domain in Europe, and the BSc program in Health Sciences (Gezondheidswetenschappen, Beleid & Management Gezondheidszorg). Courses taught for instance address Organisational Behavior, Quality & Safety, Innovation, Integrated Care, Sustainable Healthcare Organisations, Operations Management, and Financial Management.

The research of the department is aligned with the teaching, and prioritized around three shared strategic themes which are interrelated and of particular societal and scientific relevance in the domain of Health Services Management & Organisation: 1) Value-based & data-driven healthcare, 2) Digital innovation, and 3) Organizing & workforce in health & social care. Our research has an empirical improvement focus. While experienced in evaluative studies, the department increasingly engages in design and action research.

In recent years, the department has published in leading journals such as BMJ Quality & Safety, Health Care Management Review, Health Policy, JMIR, Social Science & Medicine and PLOS ONE, and won various scientific awards. Current research projects take place in The Netherlands, Europe, and across the globe in countries such as China and Colombia.

The staff of the department includes 4 Full professors, 3 Associate professors and 11 Assistant professors.