One of my supervisors used to say, that one way to look at the impact one can have in an academic life is to look at the PhD students one supervised. I had the absolute pleasure to witness how Kira Oberschmidt defended her PhD thesis “Who, when, how – Guiding the active involvement of stakeholders in eHealth Action Research”. I had not only a first row seat during her fabulous defense, but had also the honor of witnessing the whole process being her daily supervisor from day one.
Active stakeholder involvement
There are different participatory approaches when it comes to developing technology in healthcare, and action research is one of them. Kira’s PhD research was situated within a large-scale Europen project (Pharaon), in which six pilots in five countries conducted action research to integrate and implement health technologies and pilot them in real life. Kira quickly took a very active role in supporting the pilots on understanding what Action Research is and what it means to engage stakeholders actively in the process. There she practiced what she preached and listened to what her stakeholders (in this case: project partners, pilot leads, community managers) needed to carry out action research in their pilot. One of the tools she developed together with pilots is the reflection tool for collaborative reflection with stakeholders (see chapter 8 in her thesis). This tool provides a structured way for researchers to reflect together with partners on the process and content of their project. In different studies, Kira looked into ways to engage relevant stakeholders (e.g., what motivates people to join a study, how to find “champions” among stakeholders) and how to facilitate interaction between them. Based on the results of various studies carried out in different projects (not just Pharaon), she synthesised what she had learned into a framework for stakeholder involvement in eHealth action research projects. This framework is also publicly available here. Also when it comes to communication, Kira practices what she advocates for. Next to her PhD thesis (PDF), she made a magazine which makes her findings more accessible for non-academic stakeholders (PDF).
Being part of such an incredible journey
I had the honour and absolute pleasure of being Kira’s daily supervisor! In German, this is called ‘Doktormutter’ – or PhD mother. Although I had supervised many bachelor and master students before, Kira was my first ‘PhD daughter’ and that really was a gift, because she was already a relatively matured and independent researcher, and made me less anxious that I mess up.
Kira did most of her research within the Pharaon project, a complex project of such a scale that it can be quite daunting. But Kira digged right in to see, how she could shape her research as part of this project. This is not an easy task! We needed to develop guidelines for future research, but how that could or should look like was not defined. Where to focus on? Which guidance could be helpful for future researchers?
As I mentioned, Kira did not only work within Pharaon. She also helped colleagues in other projects (Salsa, Scotty, and a project with the rehabilitation center) and was able to beautifully combine work that needed to be done while looking for opportunities so that these activities also contribute to her own research. I know that I always had quite a reputation about being organised and efficient, but Kira blew my socks off.
I have to say that being a PhD supervisor is one of the best jobs there is. Being part of this journey to contribute to knowledge, but mostly, watching someone like Kira grow, is so much joy! I am so proud of her and am sure that she will excel as the new innovation manager at Health Valley.
