The Nivel Academy is Nivel’s educational platform. Through it, we make scientific knowledge and research expertise accessible to researchers, healthcare professionals, and policymakers. We achieve this by offering training courses, workshops, and other educational activities, as well as by providing consultancy and expertise services.
| OPHELIA MASTERCLASS - FROM CO-DESIGN TO IMPROVING EQUITABLE ACCESS TO HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE SERVICES | |
 Content | This is an integrated masterclass on community needs assessment, codesign, intervention development science, implementation science, evaluation and scale-up. How can we improve equitable access to health and social care services, particularly for people and communities who experience barriers to accessing, understanding and navigating services? Join an intensive, interactive masterclass on the Ophelia (Optimising Health Literacy and Access) process, an evidence-based process for understanding health literacy strengths, needs and barriers to access, and for working directly with communities and frontline health and social care workers to co-design practical solutions. The masterclass will take participants through the full pathway from formulating an initial idea, to understanding community and service needs, co-designing solutions, applying implementation science, and planning for sustainable implementation and scale-up. Participants will work with practical methods that can be applied across health and social care services, research, public health programs and policy. |
 | Researchers, PhD candidates, health and social care professionals, policymakers, program leaders, community organisations and others interested in equitable access to services, health literacy development, co-design, implementation science, inclusive research and health equity. No previous experience with Ophelia is required. |
 Result | • formulate an equity-focused problem or idea and develop it into an actionable project • identify health literacy strengths, needs and barriers to equitable access to services • recognise groups and communities whose needs may be poorly served by existing systems • translate needs-assessment data into meaningful and actionable insights (eg vignettes) • maximise authentic co-design with community members and frontline health and social care workers • generate solutions that communities and services consider needed, wanted and feasible • integrate implementation science into intervention development from the outset • test, refine and implement interventions in real-world settings • plan for sustainability, adaptation and scale-up • use Ophelia principles to strengthen equitable access to health and social care |
| Our experts | Professor Richard Osborne, Distinguished Professor in Global Health and Equity Development, La Trobe University, Australia; Honorary Prof, NOVA University Lisbon; and Honorary Prof, University of Copenhagen. And Dr Mark Bakker, Maastricht University, The Netherlands. |
 Where | Het Nivel, Otterstraat 118-124 3513 CR Utrecht |
 When | Thursday 3 and Friday 4 December 2026 |
 Time | 2 days |
 Costs | € 450 for two days or € 350 for early career researchers |
 Register | Register for this masterclass via the Registration form. |
Senior onderzoeker Communicatie in de Gezondheidszorg en Patiëntparticipatie in onderzoek, beleid en praktijk; hoogleraar Gezondheidsvaardigheden & Inclusieve participatie, CAPHRI/ Universiteit Maastricht
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