Nora Engel joined the UNU-Merit PHD Programme on Innovation Studies and Development in September 2006. She studied Media & Communication, Psychology and Art History at the University of Zurich and at the Humboldt University and Freie University in Berlin. Next to various engagements in media, PR, culture and politics, she also explored the field of future studies/ foresight while working in a foresight company which became one of her main areas of interest.
Her PhD project has the working title "Innovation dynamics in healthcare: The case of Tuberculosis control in India" under supervision of Prof. Wiebe Bijker (University of Maastricht), Prof Harro van Lente (Utrecht University) and Dr. Ragna Zeiss (University of Maastricht). The extensive qualitative fieldwork in India which was recently completed is based on in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, documentary research and visits to various sites.
By examining different forms of innovation dynamics at various levels, from decision making to implementation in a field level context, the thesis aims at showing the development of progress within public health policy and control practices along a specific public health challenge. Such an analysis can reveal how a control structure copes with uncertainty created by changing challenges, how new opportunities are made use of, whether there is a culture of innovation and how it looks like, whether and how social/technological change, new ideas are fostered and what barriers and drivers are impacting these developments. It offers furthermore a reflection on progress in knowledge production and service delivery within a public health context, on rigidities and flexibilities in reacting to a changing public health challenge like Tuberculosis and potential threat such as multi-drug resistant TB.
A detailed analysis of instances of innovation in TB control will explore the different meanings, the possibilities and the usefulness for the Indian public health system to innovate and react flexibly to emerging and changing challenges such as TB. Such insights can eventually help to enhance and foster response capacity of a public health system and simultaneously contribute to theoretical literature on innovation in healthcare, the public sector and services. |
