Photo of Dr Marieke Van Der Zande

Dr Marieke Van Der Zande

Research Associate (Dental Ethnographer) Public Health, Policy & Systems

About

Personal Statement

I am a medical sociologist, with research interests in inequalities in health care attendance and in the development and implementation of digital technologies, particularly applied to oral health care. I currently lead an embedded qualitative study on inequalities in the use of oral health care, particularly among people from disadvantages areas. This study is part of an NIHR Programme Grant for Applied Research project on developing and testing an intervention to reduce inequalities in the use of routine dental care; https://www.returnproject.co.uk/. I also work on patient and public involvement, with a particular interest in using visual methods to engage local communities in research about their uptake of healthcare visits.

Before joining the University of Liverpool, I built up expertise in heatlhcare innovation with a specific focus on understanding and supporting healthcare professionals' needs. I completed a PhD at the Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam in 2017, on the ways in which digital technologies are adopted and implemented in dental practices and the changes these may bring to the dental workforce. After completing my PhD, I have worked on research projects on improving integration of oral health care and primary medical care, as well as on variability in antibiotic prescribing in primary medical care. I specialise in qualitative research methods, such as ethnography, grounded theory, and visual methods, and also have experience in mixed methods, quantitative methods as well as patient and public involvement.