The research activities of the Chair of Management and Innovation in Health Care at the Faculty of Management, Economics and Society focus on management issues in and between organizations of the health care industry. Our teaching comprises health care management courses as well as courses on innovation management, start-up management, social entrepreneurship, social policy, corporate social responsibility, and economic democracy.

Management and Innovation in Health Care

The approach of the Chair of Management and Innovation in Health Care is interdisciplinary. We cooperate with research teams from various disciplines like hospitals, consultancies, the business community, and associations.

As a member of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Health Services Research (IZVF), the Chair addresses in particular the description, explanation, testing, and evaluation of concepts to provide high-quality health care.

We focus on issues at the interface between management and health care as well as on practice-oriented teaching and research. Moreover, we implement many projects in collaboration with partners from the health sector.

An approach that perceives learning as a self-organized process of knowledge generation and the acquisition of knowledge as a student’s independent constructive performance inevitably alters teachers’ roles and functions.

We see ourselves as learning process designers. Our teaching formats facilitate problem-oriented learning in project-related seminars. Multifaceted and interlinked real life issues serve as starting points for learning experiences; economic concepts are challenged by technological, ecological, social, or medical contexts.

We integrate distinguished practitioners in courses on a regular basis: entrepreneurs, consultants, hospital managers, medical technicians and engineers, journalists, and frequently UW/H alumni.

 For Visionaries of the Health Care Industry

If you know what it means to let your thoughts take their own course while ignoring the status quo and to passionately commit yourself to your idea of the future of health, then we would love to honour your project with the Witten Award for Health Visionaries! 

Professor Dr. Sabine Bohnet-Joschko has initiated the award, students organize the competition, and the award is endowed by the Board of Trustees of Witten/Herdecke University. We award innovative health care enterprises and business models based on one focal theme:

2015: Mobile Health
2016: Games for Health
2017: Digital Aid in old age
2018: Smart Prevention
2019: Everyday’s Health Heroes

5 November 2019 – Theme: Everyday’s Health Heroes – Health. Self-determined. Live.

At the 5 November 2019 the award was presented for the fifth time in a row. This year's event presented the theme "Everyday’s Health Heroes  – Health. Self-determinde. Live.".

The pitch competition addresses visionaries and start-ups with digital-based innovation in health care. The prize is awarded at Witten/Herdecke University by a top-flight jury of experts from specialist fields such as health, science, economy, and politics. With its interdisciplinary approach the event emphasizes the core competence of the university - to link the disciplines health, society, and economy.

More information about the award is available here:
www.gesundheitsvisionaere.de or
https://www.instagram.com/gesundheitsvisionaere/

 Federal Minister of Health Hermann Gröhe assumed patronage in 2015

“It is very positive that life expectancy in Germany rises and that we are blessed with many additional, mostly healthy years of life. At the same time, the demand for nursing and medical care rises, too. Therefore, already today we make our health care system fit for the future by means of the care reform, e-health law, or hospital reform. Innovative ideas and projects are an important contribution. This is why I am very pleased that Witten/Herdecke University offers the Award for Health Visionaries for the first time this year in order to promote creative and visionary projects in health care.” (Federal Minister of Health Hermann Gröhe, 2 June 2015)

 Managing knowledge and innovation in health care

Demographic transition, increasing health consciousness among the public, and medical-technological advances all contribute to making the health care sector a major growth industry of the 21st century. This people-intensive and high-knowledge sector, however, is also affected by demographic transition in its own organizational structures.

While allocation and development of individual and organizational knowledge are decisive competitive factors, the more urgent questions concern approaches to dealing with non-knowledge and to possibilities of generating and distributing new knowledge.

 Health care management in health care research

The team at the Walcker Endowed Professor of Management and Innovation in Health Care is focusing on describing, explaining, testing, and evaluating concepts for high-quality health care service delivery.

Key research interests are quality and risk management, knowledge and process management, innovation management, as well as leadership and motivation. In addition to contributing to the effectiveness and efficiency of health care, we explore approaches to knowledge transfer between individuals and organizations in health care, integrating the general public, patients and staff.

Co-operation with medical practitioners, nursing scientists, and IT experts ensures that we look beyond the boundaries of individual disciplines and make full use of the potential of changing perspectives. Focus of interest is the generation and distribution of innovation and knowledge in organizations and in society with reference to the health care sector.

Among our partners are hospitals and rehabilitation clinics, manufacturers of medical technology, IT businesses, and of course colleagues at other universities, as well as research institutions in Germany and abroad.