Project Descriptions

The following 12 Doctoral Projects represent a multi-methodological and multidisciplinary approach to teamwork, showcasing the diversity of research in this field. All 12 Doctoral Projects are funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks Programme of the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme.

Project 1: Psychological safety and conflict management in teamwork in the operating theatre

Recruiting organisation: Copenhagen Academy for Medical Education and Simulation (CAMES), Denmark

Supervisor: Dr. Peter Dieckmann

Duration: 36 months

Secondments:  UZH, Switzerland, 3 months; Tue Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 3 months

Summary: The PhD project is placed in the secondary sector, in operation rooms. The effective and efficient perioperative care requires a range of cognitive and social skills that are well established and are trained with some success in and outside of simulation. However, the basic underlying assumption of such skills is that those involved actually want to apply those skills. This assumption may not be true in case of conflicts. Therefore, the conceptualisation of such skills is intended to be enlarged, to also comprise conflict management techniques. As there is not much time for managing conflicts in the operating room, the PhD will contribute to find out, what is possible in this setting, and what preventive and healing measures can be taken before and after cases. Full project description.

Project 2: Wearables for Acute Care Teams (WeACT)

Recruiting organisation: Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. 

Supervisor: Dr. Josette Gevers 

Doctoral Candidate:  Jingwen Yang

Secondments:  Dr. Travis Wiltshire, Tilburg University, The Netherlands (3 months); Prof. Peter Dieckmann, REGIONH, Denmark (3 months)

Summary: This project is focused on developing a tool for (near) real-time feedback to improve performance during high-stakes crisis events such as medical emergencies. Recent research has shown that patterns in team members sensory data reflect teamwork dynamics, and that transitions therein may predict teamwork effective. Therefore, DC2 will a) map existing wearable sensor signals (i.e., physiology, speech, motion) reflecting team interaction; b) investigate how these relate to team processes and functioning and identify transitions in these signals that are indicative of teamwork breakdowns; c) develop and test ways to use these signals for real-time feedback to augment and support shared situation awareness (SA) and effective team functioning. See the full project description.

Project 3: An automatic speech recognition tool to assess, feedback and improve team communication in operating room teams

Recruiting organisation: University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland 

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Guido Beldi, Prof. Dr Tanja Manser, Dr Sandra Keller

Doctoral Candidate: Lilien Schewski 

Secondments:  Bonn University Hospital (UKB) in Germany and REGION HOVEDSTADEN (Region H) in Denmark

Summary: Based on automatic speech analysis, we will develop a tool to give the surgeons a detailed, automatized and confidential feedback on their communication during surgical operations, with a particular focus on tense, potentially rude communication sequences. (1) Identification, in audio-recorded surgical operations, patterns of speech that coincide with sequences of tense communication. (2) Establish a validated methodology to automatically assess patterns of tense communication based on audio-recordings. (3) Establish a feedback system to inform surgeons on their communication patterns assessed based on audio-recordings of operations and visible immediately after the operations. (4) Develop short, automatic and confidential recommendations and training tips for the surgeons based on the specific feedbacks they receive after an operation. Full project description.

Project 4: Development of a Behavioural Anchored Rating Scale to Assess Reflection Quality During Debriefings

Recruiting organisation: University of Zurich, Switzerland

Supervisor: Prof. Jan Schmutz 

Doctoral Candidate: Arndt Pool

Secondments:  LMU Munich, Germany (3 months); Copenhagen Academy for Medical Education and Simulation (CAMES), Denmark (3 months)

Summary: Debriefings or after-action reviews after clinical cases or as part of team trainings using medical simulation approaches have gained increased attention in the last decade. Researchers and practitioners agree that debriefings are a valuable tool to foster learning, improve teamwork and ultimately increase patient safety. In this PhD project the DC will develop and validate a behaviour anchored rating scale (BARS) to assess reflection quality during debriefings. To achieve this goal qualitative and quantitative methodologies will be applied using interviews with debriefing experts and structured behavioural observation and analysis of debriefing discussions. Full project description.

Project 5: VR-based assessment and training of situation awareness in emergency care teams

Recruiting organisation: University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW)

Supervisor: Prof. Tanja Manser

Doctoral Candidate: Laura Moens

Secondments:  University of Galway, Ireland, for 2 months; ORamaVR, 2 months

Summary: The focus of this PhD fellowship is to utilize VR/AR technology to assess and improve non-technical skills with a particular focus on situation awareness (SA) in emergency care teams. The project aims to:
(1) Establish a VR-based methodology to reliably assess SA during a VR-based emergency care scenario.
(2) Understand situational cues that help or hinder SA in VR-based emergency care scenarios.
(3) Investigate the relationship between SA and several performance markers related to team performance and quality of care.
(4) Develop VR-based trainings to improve SA of healthcare providers in emergency care.
See the Full project description.

Project 6: Remote monitoring of patients in the community

Recruiting organisation: Discipline of Primary Care, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland.

Supervisors: Dr. Paul O’Connor, Dr. Sinead Lydon, Dr. Angela O’Dea

Doctoral Candidate: Sara Cucurachi

Secondments:  Aerogen, Galway (3 months); University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (2 months)

Summary: The purpose of the project is to investigate how remote monitoring of patients in the community can be carried out in order to improve the situation awareness of the healthcare team responsible for caring for the patient. The goals of the project are to:
(1) examine the quality and safety issues with the remote physiological monitoring of patients in community healthcare settings; (2) identify the barriers to, and enablers of, remote physiological monitoring of patients from the perspective of all stakeholders- patients, healthcare professionals, healthcare policy makers, and technology developers; and 
(3) develop recommendations for how to address the barriers to remote physiological monitoring to improve team performance. See the full project description.

Project 7: Human-centered Networked Care

Recruiting organisation: Department of Public and Occupational Health at the Amsterdam University Medical Center, the Netherlands

Supervisors: Prof. Martine de Bruijne; dr. Marijke Melles, dr. Gerard Kraan, prof. Tanja Manser

Doctoral Candidate: Yutian (Tony) Sun

Secondments:  Reinier de Graaf HAGA Orthopedic Center in Delft (NL) (3 months & 2 moths); University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (3 months); Department of Applied Ergonomics and Design of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at Technical University of Delft (3 months)

Summary: The purpose of this project is to develop knowledge for the human centered implementation of networked care for orthopedic patients, taking the patient journey as a starting point. The goals of the project are to: (1) Investigating the needs, values, facilitators and barriers of all stakeholders involved in networked orthopedic care, by using human centered design research techniques (i.e. a sociotechnical system perspective including stakeholder mapping, context mapping and patient journey mapping); (2) Develop a framework for networked care and identify opportunities for digital support; and (3) Develop, prototype and evaluate a tool to support team structures and processes in networked care. See the full project description.

Project 8: A network communication platform to support transmural care teams

Recruiting organisation: Department of Public and Occupational Health at the Amsterdam University Medical Center, the Netherlands

Supervisors: Prof. Martine de Bruijne; dr. Marijke Melles, Thijs Rietjens, Marit B. Hagland

Doctoral Candidate: Carla Molenaar

Secondments:  Caresharing in the Netherlands (3 months); Valide AS in Norway (3 months)

Summary: The purpose of this project is to adapt, test and implement a digital information integration platform to support transmural care provided by care teams, consisting of professionals in primary and secondary care, the patient and his/her informal care givers. The goals of the project will be achieved through: (1) Investigating the needs, values, facilitators and barriers of stakeholders involved in transmural elderly care by literature review; (2) Explore specific contextual challenges for transmural team functioning and identify specific design opportunities using human centered design research techniques (i.e. a sociotechnical system perspective including stakeholder mapping, context mapping and patient journey mapping); (3) Iterative adaptive design of (extensions of) the information integration platform with support for transmural teams; (4) identify and understand cross-national differences in contextual challenges and use of transmural support tools for transmural care teams; and (5) Evaluate the impact of a tailored integration information platform to support transmural care teams. See the full project description.

Project 9: Coordination in multi-team healthcare systems

Recruiting organisation: Centre for Resilience in Healthcare (SHARE), Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Stavanger, Stavanger

Supervisors: Prof. Sissel Eikeland Husebø, Prof. Karina Aase

Doctoral Candidate: Jicke Höök

Secondments: Amsterdam Public Health research institute, Department of Public and Occupational Health, VUMC (3 months), and NIVEL (3 months), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Summary: For patients with multimorbidity and complex care needs, handovers between centralized acute care settings and decentralized chronic care settings are vulnerable moments in the provision of care. Poor communication and incomplete information in cross-organisational transitioning transfer between multi-team systems (MTSs) can impede access to needed support and resources. Establishing digital tools to support coordination between MTSs has the potential to support improved communication and collaboration in cross-organisational transitioning. In this project, the Doctoral Candidate will design tools to support transmural patient handovers by describing how MTS perform in transition between centralized acute care settings and decentralized chronic care settings, identifying competencies necessary for MTS to facilitate or hinder the quality and safety of patient handovers, and exploring how digital tools can support MTS competencies in patient handovers. The project is expected to result in an improved understanding of how MTS perform in patient handovers between centralized acute care settings and decentralized chronic care settings, generate knowledge about MTS competencies involved in patient handovers, and provide knowledge on how digital tools in patient handovers can support MTS competencies.  See the full project description.

Project 10: Full-scale surgical teamwork training through augmented-reality simulation: Clinical implementation and effectiveness for provider and patient care performance

Recruiting organization: Institute for Patient Safety (IfPS), Bonn University Hospital, Germany, ifps@ukbonn.de, www.ukbonn.de/ifps

Supervisor: Prof. Matthias Weigl

Doctoral Candidate: Kathrin Adamietz

Secondments: Medability GmbH, Munich (2 Months); FH Nordwestschweiz (2 Months)

Summary: Virtual- and augmented-reality technologies offer great potential for skill training of junior surgeons. Our project addresses challenges associated with utilization and implementation of VR/AR-based training technology in surgical practice with particular focus to spine surgery. We plan to (1) Investigate VR/AR-based training as training technology in training of surgeons technical as well as non-technical skills; (2) identify implementation strategies of team training by means of VR/AR based technologies and simulators in spine surgery; (3) define measures for assessment and training of situation awareness and cognitive skills in multi-disciplinary OR teamwork; (4) and to explore consequences for provider and patient outcomes in delivery of surgical care in spine surgery. See the full project description.

Project 11: Citizens as part of the care team

Recruiting organisation: Copenhagen Academy for Medical Education and Simulation (CAMES)

Supervisor: Dr. Peter Dieckmann

Duration: 36 months

Secondments:  UiS, Stavanger, Norway, for 3 months. And VUmc Amsterdam, The Netherlands, for 3 months.

Summary: The PhD project is placed in the primary sector. It investigates how the interaction between health care professionals and citizen (i.e. service users) can be supported so that citizen experience a higher degree of empowerment in everyday life, regardless of the extent or type of help and effort that the individual needs. Three studies are planned:

1. 1. Examine the interaction patterns between citizens and health care professionals that facilitate or hinder the empowerment and involvement of the citizens in their care in daily care situations. Field work resulting in thick descriptions of actual care situations that allow to identify interaction patterns and their context that hinder or facilitate the empowerment and team involvement of the citizen.

1. 1. Identify the needs and wishes of citizens and health care professionals for empowering and involvement of citizens into their care team, as well as organisational framework conditions of these interactions resulting in comprehensive understanding of the wishes and needs, as well as organisational conditions for the team involvement and empowerment of citizens.

1. 1. Develop a set of a tool, approaches, and guidance to be used in daily care situations in the community care sector to optimize the interaction between citizen, health care professionals, and the involved organisation, which can be used in or adapted to different primary contexts.

See the full project description.

Project 12: Patient and family involvement in acute care teamwork

Recruiting organisation: Centre for Resilience in Healthcare (SHARE), Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Stavanger, Stavanger

Supervisors: Prof. Sissel Eikeland Husebø, Prof. Karina Aase

Doctoral Candidate: Asma Sabri

Secondments: Amsterdam Public Health research institute, Department of Public and Occupational Health, VUmc, Amsterdam, Netherlands (3 months) and Copenhagen Academy for Medical Education and Simulation, REGIONH, Copenhagen, Denmark (3 months)

Summary: Patient and family involvement in acute care teamwork is less developed than in non-acute healthcare settings. In an acute situation the involvement of patients and their family members is often neglected. In emergency medical services such as the prehospital setting, further research is needed on the scope, extent and nature of patient and family involvement, the broader contextual processes that shape patient and family involvement, and the bidirectional implications between patient and family involvement and interprofessional teamwork. In this project, the Doctoral Candidate will therefore develop guidance on tools to support the role of patients and their family members in an acute prehospital teamwork setting. The project will identify distinct characteristics of the role of patient and family, map contextual challenges and needs, and co-develop and test a tool-bundle in a simulated setting. See the full project description.