PhD candidate for improving digital representations of patients in the hospital

The Department of Communication and Cognition at Tilburg University and the Elisabeth-TweeSteden hospital (ETZ) are looking for an enthusiastic PhD researcher to join a joint project on “Improving digital representations of patients in the hospital.” The project offers a rare opportunity to work at the intersection of communication science, healthcare, and AI—collaborating closely with both academic researchers and medical practitioners.

Digitalization in healthcare has transformed the way patient information is collected and managed. Electronic health records (EHRs) now contain vast amounts of medical and personal data, offering opportunities for better care, personalization, and prevention. At the same time, current systems face important challenges: much of the data is still entered manually, patient portals are not always reliable or user-friendly, and information is often stored rather than dynamically presented in ways that truly support decision-making for both patients and professionals.

This fully funded, four-year PhD project will explore how health information can be collected, processed, and presented in ways that strengthen patient autonomy and improve clinical decision-making. Patients’ expectations of “what is known about them” often differ from the reality of what is stored. Bridging this gap requires innovation across three areas:

1. Data entry – enabling patient-driven, accurate, and accessible input.
2. Data processing – structuring, summarizing, and storing information in meaningful ways.
3. Data presentation – developing usable and accessible visualizations tailored to the needs of both care providers and patients, while accounting for varying literacy levels.

Artificial intelligence may play a role across these areas, for instance in enhancing the quality of patient-reported data or tailoring information presentation. At the same time, careful attention will be paid to ethical issues such as privacy, security, and bias in digital health systems.

You will adopt a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative and participatory methods to map the needs of healthcare professionals and patients, with evaluation studies to assess the effectiveness and user experience of innovative solutions.

Your PhD will culminate in a thesis that delivers both theoretical insights and practical recommendations for improving digital patient representations. By making health information more usable, accessible, and ethically sound, you will contribute directly to more personalized and effective healthcare.

Your profile

1. Ability to work and think at an academic level, with a master’s degree in a field such as human-computer interaction, design, communication science, artificial intelligence, health informatics, or comparable.
2. Work experience is not required.
3. Minimum CEFR level C2 English required, and C2/C1 Dutch preferred.
4. Strong methodological skills (qualitative and/or quantitative).
5. Ability to cooperate in multidisciplinary teams, work independently and proactively.
6. Experience in design, prototyping, basic programming, AI and/or machine learning are a plus.

International PhD candidates with scholarships below the applicable IND income standard (currently €2,191.80 per month excluding vacation pay) are unfortunately not eligible for this vacancy.

Our offer
Tilburg University offers excellent benefits in a pleasant working environment:

• Employment of 0.8–1.0 fte (32–40 hours per week).
• Salary between €3,059.00 (year one) and €3,881.00 (year four) gross per month for full-time employment (UFO-profile Promovendus/PhD Candidate, salary scale P). Tilburg University uses a neutral remuneration system based on relevant work experience.
• This is a vacancy for a PhD in accordance with Article 2.3 paragraph 8 sub b CLA DU. You will initially be given a temporary contract for the duration of 18 months.
• Vacation pay of 8% and a year-end bonus of 8.3%.
• Over 8 weeks of vacation leave.
• Hybrid working with home working allowance (€2 p/day) and internet allowance (€25 p/month).
• Reimbursement sustainable commuting: walking, cycling, and public transport.
• Options model for additional leave, pension, a bicycle or personal training.
• Moving allowance (subject to conditions).
• 30% rule for international employees (if applicable).
• Pension through ABP.
• Ample training offer: personal development, leadership, education, research or language courses.
• Inclusive work culture: everyone welcome, equal opportunities.
• A green, inviting campus that’s easily accessible by public transport.

For more information, please see our website and the CLA Dutch Universities.

Tilburg University is an academic, inclusive, and engaged community. Together with nearly 3,000 employees, we are committed to broad prosperity, sustainably, and inclusion. For current and future generations. We develop and share knowledge for the requirements of people and our society. This is how we contribute to solving complex social issues and help society move forward.

We educate our 19,500 students of 110 nationalities to become responsible leaders with knowledge, skills, and character. With our education and research for broad prosperity, we exceedingly focus on themes such as mental and preventive care, an inclusive labor market, the energy transition, and digitalization.

About the School of Humanities and Digital Sciences
Research and education at the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences (TSHD) has a unique focus on humans in the context of the globalizing digital society, on the development of artificial intelligence and interactive technologies, on their impact on communication, culture and society, and on moral and existential challenges that arise. The School of Humanities and Digital Sciences consists of five departments: Communication and Cognition, Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, Culture Studies, Learning Sciences, and Philosophy; several research institutes and a faculty office. Also, the University College Tilburg is part of the School. TSHD has approximately 2500 students and 250 employees.

About the Department of Communication and Cognition

The successful candidate will be part of the Department of Communication and Cognition (DCC), within the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences (TSHD). 

DCC researchers explore cognitive and social aspects of human communication, through a multi-method approach, combining carefully designed experiments with survey methods, corpus analyses, computational modelling, digital ethnography and design research. It is a highly interdisciplinary program, including communication and cognitive science with AI and (computational) linguistics, human-computer interaction, psychology and sociology. Core research topics are communication & technology, verbal and non-verbal communication, health communication, climate communication, information visualization, language comprehension and production and human-computer interaction. The program includes both fundamental and applied research, the latter often in externally funded research projects, in close collaboration with societal partners. 

DCC staff is also responsible for a successful teaching program in Communication and Information Sciences (CIS), in which students can follow three tracks: Business Communication and Digital Media (BDM), Communication and Cognition (CC) and New Media Design (NMD).

The department consists of about 85 researchers covering a broad range of topics relevant for cognition and communication, and includes approximately 30 PhD students and post-docs. 

About the Elisabeth-TweeSteden hospital

The successful candidate will also be part of the Elisabeth-TweeSteden Hospital (ETZ) in Tilburg, with over 5,000 employees providing care for around 185,000 unique patients. ETZ is specialized in trauma care, neurosurgery, cardiology, orthopedia, intervention radiology and healthy aging. The hospital focuses on providing top quality care and is continuously improving and innovating healthcare practices by collaborating with various research institutes, including Tilburg University. Together with 26 other hospitals, ETZ is part of a national collaboration of top clinical hospitals (Samenwerking Topklinische Ziekenhuizen).