B.E. Bente MSc (Britt)

Hi there! I’m Britt, a dedicated PhD researcher within the Section of Psychology, Health and Technology at the BMS Faculty. My main focus? You guessed it – eHealth! I employ a holistic approach to address the intricate challenges surrounding the development, implementation, and evaluation of health technologies.

But, it’s not just about the eHealth technology; it’s about the people and environment too! My mission is to emphasize that eHealth is not merely a standalone tool, but an integral part of a broader ecosystem. This ecosystem encompasses legal and ethical standards, as well as support systems to ensure seamless integration, interoperability and long-term sustainability. Recognizing the uniqueness of each eHealth initiative, I understand that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for implementation. Therefore, it’s crucial to consider the diverse factors inherent to each eHealth initiative before making decision regarding implementation. Hence, I advocate for a holistic approach and collaboration with end-users and (business) stakeholders, ensuring that our eHealth dreams harmonize with their reality.

Expertise

• Medicine and Dentistry

  • e-Health
  • Patient
  • Health

• Nursing and Health Professions

  • Telehealth
  • Cardiovascular Disease
  • Evaluation Study

• Social Sciences

  • Dutch
  • Stakeholders

Organisations

As member of the eHealth Junior Consortium (WP7), my PhD research focuses on exploring the intricate dimensions of eHealth implementation. Specifically, I delve into the legal, ethical, financial, and technological aspects of this field. This involves addressing diverse challenges, such as:

-        Legal: Navigating compliance with regulations such as the MDR or GDP, ensuring our eHealth initiatives meet legal standards

-        Ethical: Balancing user consent, accountability, eHealth validation, data transparency, and inclusivity/diversity, upholding ethical standards

-        Financial: Developing strategies for sustainability, which includes crafting business models, securing funding, and supporting ongoing developments

-        Technological: Addressing challenges related to interoperability, malfunctions, errors, and accessibility, striving to enhance the overall reliability and user experience of our eHealth technologies

In previous research, I gained valuable experience developing, implementing, and evaluating diverse eHealth solutions for chronic and infectious diseases. A common thread among all these projects was my focus on understanding the values of the users/stakeholders and identifying the needs and requirements that the eHealth technology and its environment must meet. Whether it was developing a lifestyle platform tailored for people with cardiovascular disease (BENEFIT consortium), a platform with reflective data on prescribing antibiotics for healthcare practitioners, conducting usability tests of the Dutch COVID-19 contact tracing tracker (CoronaMelder), or studying the impact of motivational interviewing on the adherence of people with diabetes to orthopedic shoes, I ensured that each project was grounded in a user-centered approach. 

Publications

Research profiles

Affiliated study programs

Courses academic year 2024/2025

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2023/2024

Current projects

eHealth Junior

The aim of the project is to develop, evaluate, and implement trans-diagnostic and personalized eHealth tools that can identify psychological problems and provide personalized behavior-modifying interventions for chronically ill children.

Finished projects

Usability testing of the Dutch CoronaMelder app

Willingness to take the Sars-CoV-2 vaccine: practical implications on population health messages

Our overall aim is to identify those who are undecided or currently unwilling to accept a Sars-CoV-2 vaccine and to investigate what constitutes a credible source of information on the Sars-CoV-2 vaccine.

Benefit for all

Cardiologists, neurologists, general practitioners, academics, entrepreneurs, and patients have joined forces and developed an eHealth platform that encourages cardiovascular patients to maintain a healthy lifestyle: The Benefit project. This project aims to create a national ecosystem in which evidence-based interventions that promote a healthy lifestyle are imbedded in a platform that rewards users for taking actions that contribute to such a healthy lifestyle. The ecosystem integrates care and non-care settings, connects public and private lifestyle partners, is financially sustainable, and is fueled by continuous scientific evaluation. Benefit for all!

Socio-economic impact of orthopaedic shoes

Diabetic foot ulcers are a leading cause of hospitalization, amputation and high treatment costs. Custom-made orthopaedic shoes are recommended in (inter)national guidelines to prevent (re)ulcerations, and adherence to these orthopaedic shoes is crucial. However, adherence to orthopaedic shoes is often low and there is a lack of insight in methods to improve this adherence. We propose a novel care approach, motivational interviewing (MI) and a new digital shoe-fitting procedure, to improve adherence to orthopaedic shoes and to be (cost-)effective. The aim of this trial is to assess the (cost-)effectiveness of this novel care approach (MI combined with digital fitting) compared to usual care (no MI and casting-based fitting) in terms of adherence to orthopaedic shoes and ulcer prevention.

Intersectoral network for zoonosis

Supporting the intersectoral network through "One Health Hub"

Address

University of Twente

Cubicus (building no. 41), room B108
De Zul 10
7522 NJ Enschede
Netherlands

Navigate to location

University of Twente

Capitool 15 (building no. 78), room 239

Organisations