Profile

Lena Ansmann, born in 1985, studied public health from 2004 to 2010 at the Universities of Bremen, Malmö and Bielefeld. In 2014 she finished her doctorate at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Cologne, on “The patient-physician interaction and the hospital context – studies on social support from physicians in breast cancer care”. Her doctoral thesis was awarded with the Reinhold-Schwarz-Award for Psychooncology.

In 2015 she was appointed as Assistant Professor for Methods of Implementation and Evaluation in Therapeutic Education and Health Services Research at the Faculty of Human Sciences of the University of Cologne. In 2017 Lena Ansmann was appointed as Professor for Organizational Health Services Research at the University of Oldenburg. There she led the Division for Organizational Health Services Research at the Department of Health Services Research. Besides the establishment of a new Master’s program in Health Services Research, she has been involved in the foundation of the Crossborder Institute of Healthcare Systems and Prevention (CBI), a joint collaboration of the Universities of Oldenburg and Groningen (NL). In 2023 Lena Ansmann was appointed as Professor for Medical Sociology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Cologne. She heads the new Department of Medical Sociology within the Institute of Medical Sociology, Health Services Research and Rehabilitation Science (IMVR). Lena Ansmann is lecturing predominantly in the Human Medicine study program, where she is representing the field of Medical Sociology.

She has served on the board of the German Society for Medical Sociology (DGMS) since 2020 and has been its chair since 2024. Moreover, between 2022 and 2024 she was member of the board of the German Network Health Services Research (DNVF). In 2026, the University of Birmingham awarded her the title of “Honorary Professor” in recognition of her many years of successful collaboration. Her research is located at the interface between Medical Sociology and Health Services Research. Her research focuses on the one hand on the wider context of healthcare, particularly on the organizational context in e.g. hospitals and private practices. On the other hand, she researches under which conditions patient-centered care can be realized and she contributes to the development, evaluation and implementation of complex interventions in equally complex healthcare organizations.