Summary

Originally from the Netherlands, I have qualifications in business and human resource management, to which I added various UK qualifications, including an MSc in Information Systems and a PhD in Health Informatics and Telemedicine (University of Portsmouth). Prior to joining the University in 1998 I held management positions in industry and the UK National Health Service.

I cut my teeth in information systems design, development, implementation and evaluation at a software house in the Netherlands in the early 1980s. Once at the University I became particularly interested in how elderly and vulnerable users might benefit from technology-mediated health and medical care, including remote monitoring and patient care.

Priorities remain tackling the barriers to access and use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and mitigating ‘the Digital Divide’, as well as addressing the human elements of interactions with such systems.

Other research interests are the use of ICT for reminiscence therapy; health applications in nutrition and health management; ethics and information systems; evaluation of mobile health applications; e-learning and its opportunities and challenges, and e-health and e-government in developing countries.

Biography

I am a Principal Lecturer in Health Informatics and Deputy Head of the School of Computing, as well as the Faculty of Technology's Director of Postgraduate Research. I have also served as the Faculty's Associate Dean (Academic), the School’s Undergraduate Course Director and held various MSc Course Leader roles.

I’m a long-standing member of the Centre for Healthcare Modelling and Informatics and my research interests include remote monitoring as well as the social, organizational and ethical aspects of information systems applications (particularly for elderly and vulnerable members of our society), their development and evaluation.

Research interests

• Health Informatics
• Telemedicine
• Health and Healthcare
• Information Systems
• Systems Evaluation
• Usability
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Ethics
• E-learning

Teaching responsibilities

My teaching interests include information systems, usability, business systems analysis, research and research methodologies. I mainly supervise Master’s (taught and by research) and Undergraduate students, as well as PhD students.