„This was one of the best organized, most enjoyable programs I have ever attended. “

From September 21st to 26th the Interdisciplinary Summer School “Social Sciences Meet Health Care” headed by the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences took place. 27 visiting scientists from all over the world enjoyed a week of meeting fellow researchers, exchanging ideas and initiating long-term cooperation.

“From the first moment, our international participants were very outgoing. They maintained an open atmosphere throughout the whole week, which was especially apparent in the intensive debates after the presentations and also in the lively personal exchanges during the breaks.”, report the organizers of the summer school. During the one-week event, the participants dealt with the topic of “Inclusive Innovation in Health Care” by attending presentations, interactive poster sessions and workshops. Because of the cooperation across faculties and the systematic invitation of renowned visiting lecturers, including Professor Gerry George from the Imperial College in London, who, among experts, is best known for as editor of the Academy of Management Journal, the participants developed new approaches to minimize inequalities in health care. These approach contain, for example, new information and communication technologies, which improve the coordination or care between physicians and patients, or innovations regarding health care systems, in order to adequately provide health care to disenfranchised people. Other visiting lecturers were, for example, Professor Andrea Prado from INCAE Business School, Costa Rica, Professor Pepe Lee Chang from the University of Texas, San Antonio, USA, Professor Bart Niewenhuis from the University of Twente, Netherlands, but also practitioners such as Dr. Shyam Vasudey, CEO of Focus Health Inc., India, and Peter Kastner from the Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Austria.

 

 

 

 

Photo: André Wirsig

Due to the summer school many cooperation projects were maintained and new ones were stimulated. Therefore, the organizers were especially able to intensify new research projects with Professor George from the Imperial College London and Professor Jelena Spanjol from the University of Illinois, Chicago. But also the participants exchanged ideas for future research projects among each other during the week. Besides the professional aspects, the participants also discovered the cultural side of the city of Dresden: “Our guests enjoyed exploring Dresden very much. Especially the joint evening program on Wednesday was perceived as positively. There, the participants of all 5 summer schools met and the city of Dresden and some services of the TU Dresden introduced themselves to the audience.”

The summer school was organized by the researcher group InnoTech4Health, which is led by Dr. Sebastian Gurtner and focuses on research covering medical technology, health economics and technology management.