“New approaches required to solve current and future problems”

Neuruppin, 21 December 2021

Starting with the next summer term, the Brandenburg Medical School (MHB) is going to extend its range of programmes in medicine and psychotherapy to include a new consecutive Master course in Health Services Research (M.Sc.). Prof. Dawid Pieper, professor of health services research and scientific co-ordinator of the new course, welcomes it as “a perfect complement to the MHB research focus and also a significant contribution to improved health care and adaptation to supply needs specifically in rural areas”.

Change makers and healthcare pioneers

Prof. Edmund Neugebauer, past president and senior professor of health services research at the MHB, has provided substantial impetus to the design and implementation of the Master programme. “We keep hearing that in comparison with other countries our own health care system works fairly well. But what we see today is that – apart from being relatively expensive – it is no longer up to current requirements. We need more than outdated concepts and mindsets to solve today’s and tomorrow’s problems. For many years I have been fighting to establish health services research as the key approach in a necessary reorientation of our healthcare system, and I am very pleased to note that the MHB once again acts as a driving force for realignment in healthcare with this new Master programme. The study course targets change makers and healthcare pioneers who plan to become actively involved in changing and improving our somewhat laborious and dysfunctional health system.”

Unique in Germany

Prof. Pieper has further details: “The focus and specialisation of the new Master programme which is unique in Germany is on securing person-centred healthcare provision in rural and structurally weak regions. The idea is to identify current challenges in the provision of care and to analyse and assess changing care structures and processes; in addition, new practical and patient-oriented solutions and recommendations for action need to be developed and implemented on site. Professors and instructors for the new course are renowned experts in the field and form part of national and international networks. Furthermore, external speakers of renown from specialist institutions will assume part of teaching in modules and thereby ensure a high level of practice and research orientation. The teaching and learning format of Problem Oriented Learning (POL) is a specific educational feature in the new course; students receive complex practice-based assignments covering several subject areas and including action-related and reflective tasks.

The initial format will be a part-time course with blended learning. Organizationally assigned to the Faculty of Health Sciences (FGW), the course will be based at the Centre for Health Services Research (ZFV-BB) in Rüdersdorf near Berlin.

Online applications for the coming summer semester will be accepted until 15 February 2022. WFor more detailed information on the new Master programme in Health Services Research see here.