Esther Metting is an ambitious scientist with a clear goal in mind: improving scientific knowledge about digital care, also known as e-Health. ‘I want to make digital care more accessible and valuable, paying attention to cultural differences and through collaboration with patients and users,’ she explains.
Together with healthcare providers and COPD patients, Metting is investigating how not digitally savvy people can still enjoy the health benefits of eHealth. For this research, she received a Veni grant in 2021. ‘I interviewed 65 patients in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and England. In addition, 500 patients in Portugal, Romania and Spain completed a questionnaire anonymously,’ Metting says. ‘Interesting fact: people who are not digitally proficient can, with a little help, get by with digital care. Think of the corona app during the covid pandemic. We map that valuable information for healthcare providers so they know what digital care is feasible for their patient.’
Metting is doing more in this area. For the national Citrine Fund programme ‘Digitaal mee in de zorg’, she works with colleagues across the country to make existing digital care within hospitals more accessible. ‘Together with staff and patients, we look for solutions ,’ she explains.
It is precisely this collaboration with patients, citizens and interdisciplinary professionals that characterises Metting's work. And her approach does not go unnoticed: from all over the world, she receives invitations to give presentations on her research and patient engagement. In the media and on her website, she shares her research projects with a wide audience, which earned her a nomination for the Woman in the Media Award Groningen in 2021.
In recent years, Metting has become more committed to diversity in academia. ‘One look at the portraits in the Academy Building tells enough: a scientist is over 50, white and male. These role models do not reflect today's academia,’ she argues. Together with colleagues at the RUG, she is organising a symposium for International Women's Day on 10 March 2025. ‘We are also distributing a questionnaire among Groningen scientists to find out what are barriers to more diversity, such as structural overworking and the division in caring tasks,’ Metting says. The results should spark discussion within faculties.
Metting's mission to bridge the gap between science and society fits with the mission of The Young Academy (DJA). ‘Why is that important? Just look at the prevailing distrust in science,’ she says. ‘Together with DJA members, I want to narrow the gap between scientists and the public by presenting research in an understandable way.’
Esther Metting is expert eHealth at the Data Science Center in Health (DASH), the central hub for data science, AI, eHealth, machine learning in the UMCG.
The Young Academy, part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), consists of 50 members. Their membership lasts for five years. Every year, a selection committee of The Young Academy and the KNAW chooses ten new members based on nominations from within and outside the KNAW. To qualify for Young Academy membership, young researchers must have distinguished themselves academically and have obtained their doctorates less than 10 years ago.
