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Prof. Dr. Ina Otte

Ina Otte heads the Department of Health Services Research at the Institute for Diversity Medicine and researches how needs-based and fair health care can be achieved, particularly for vulnerable groups of people.

Ina Otte studied sociology with a minor in psychology at Bielefeld University. From 2012 to 2015, she completed her doctorate at the Institute for Medical and Bioethics (IBMB) at the University of Basel. Together with her project colleagues, she was awarded the Swiss Research Prize of the College of Family Medicine for her dissertation research. 

After completing her doctorate, she worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine at the Ruhr University Bochum (2015-2019). In 2020, she became W1 Professor of Health Services Research in the Department of General Practice, and since January 2025, she has headed the newly founded Department of Health Services Research at the Institute of Diversity Medicine as W2 Professor. She is involved in academic self-administration as founder and chair of the Commission for Young Academics and as Deputy Decentralised Equal Opportunities Officer.

Main research areas

Ina Otte investigates how healthcare services can be designed in a context-aware and low-barrier manner in order to address the needs of vulnerable population groups in particular in a needs-based and evidence-based manner. Her research combines participatory methods with the analysis of individual obstacles as well as structural barriers in the healthcare system. Current projects focus on family carers of people with dementia, older people with depressive disorders and people with chronic illnesses. Special attention is also being paid to digital health applications and the question of how these can be designed to be inclusive.

 

Recent publications

Publications on PubMed