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[About]

Hospitals have become sites of disposability in recent years. Attempts to address this can be top-down and technocratic. The Upcycled Clinic takes a different route into the problem. It focuses on creative practices already happening in the clinic, involving making the most of existing materials.

Our team conducts fieldwork around the world - Ghana, the Netherlands, England, Scotland, Indonesia, Australia, Pakistan and India - where such improvisations are highlighted due to different constraints. In five sub-projects (Improvising, Preparing, Making, Innovating and Reacting) we do fieldwork and interviews and look into open datasets, to find out more about the conditions which cultivate and curtail creative material engagement in the clinic.

The Upcycled Clinic project aims to develop novel ways of reusing and sharing research material in ethnography that adopts sensory methods and rethinks data waste. We hope that contributions from the rich case of the clinic will also help address long-standing questions regarding creativity, resilience and innovation in the workplace. Practically, the study will help articulate conditions under which healthcare can leverage creativity and pay better attention to local solutions to wastefulness and shortage.

[Get in touch]

Curious to learn more or interested in collaborating?We’d love to hear from you. Reach out via makedomedicine-fasos@maastrichtuniversity.nl,
our postal address, or connect with us on social media.

Investigating

the afterlife

of hospital materials

featured invention: suturing on fruit

[Introduction]

Banana peel is actually very similar to the human skin in texture, and so it is a great (and cheaper) way to practice simple suturing techniques. Grape is also a great fruit to simulate thinner and more fragile skin that is more delicate in certain areas of the body (like the face).

Field

SURGERY

[Funding]

We are grateful to the funders of this project, the European Union. This project is supported by European Research Council (ERC) grant MAKE DO MEDICINE, no. 101125003. It is hosted by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

Disclaimer

Views and opinions expressed on this website are however those of the author(s)only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

about the funding

Hosted by

maastricht
university

Faculty of
Arts and Social Sciences

Funded by

European
Research
Council

European
Union

meet  the people
behind the  project

Project team

Anna Harris

Principal Investigator

Anna holds a Chair as Professor of Anthropology and Medicine at Maastricht University. Her ethnographic fieldwork focuses on medical practices and other crafts. She current leads The Upcycled Clinic team and also empirically investigates repurposing in Antarctica through fieldwork and archival research in Hobart, Tasmania for the Preparing sub-project

Ludovica Pagliara

Project Officer

Ludo is the research project manager, helping with the strategy, ideas, administration, and planning. She has experience previously in the corporate sector managing large projects and teams, as she worked as a Project Management Officer and Product Manager. Ludo graduated with a degree in Management from the University of Pavia.

Szilvi zörgö

Post-Doctoral Researcher

Szilvi has worked as a core lecturer in the Computational Social Science program at the University of Amsterdam, as a Marie Curie fellow at Maastricht University, Care and Public Health Research Institute, and an assistant professor at Semmelweis University. A cultural anthropologist, Szilvi joined the project to explore ethnographic data reuse for the Reacting sub-project.

Onallia osei

Post-Doctoral Researcher

Onallia has a PhD in Globalization, Transnationalism, and Development from Maastricht University, and a Master of Philosophy in Geography and Resource Development from the University of Ghana. In Onallia's work for the Improvising sub-project in Accra, Ghana, she brings insights about improvisation, liminality, and agency within urban hospitals.

Gamia Gewanggamanik

Post-Doctoral Researcher

Gamia's research focuses on the intersection of social design, Indigenous innovation and material cultures, with experience in design-led community development in rural Indonesia. With a PhD on Innovation, Glasgow School of Art, and an MA Material Futures from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London, Gamia will lead the Making sub-project in Upcycled Clinic.

samuel akakpo

Post-Doctoral Researcher

Samuel is a medical anthropologist who has done research on the practice of traditional medicine and indigenous knowledge systems of health and healthcare among the Ewe of Ghana.Building on ethnographies of Traditional Bone Setting in indigenous Ghanaian societies and hospitals for his PhD, he will do research in Ho, Ghana for the Improvising sub-project.

Sarrah Companiwala

Student Investigator

Sarrah is a student researcher in the project, conducting her fieldwork in India and Pakistan as part of the Improvising sub-project. She completed her Bachelor of Medicine at Maastricht University and is pursuing her Master of Medicine. She has undertaken an internship in the Anesthesiology and Pain Management department, and in in the Oncology Department at MUMC+.

Faiza Kashif

Student Investigator

Faiza is a student researcher of the project, primarily responsible for fieldwork focusing in India and Pakistan as part of the Improvising sub-project. She completed her Bachelor of Medicine and is pursuing a Master of Medicine, with clinical rotations across the Netherlands and research experience in pharmaceutical pollution and environmentally sustainable healthcare.

Lucía Barona Bonet

Research Assistant

Lucía is the team’s Research Assistant. She contributes across different areas of the project, including managing the website content, working on the LinkedIn account and supporting data-related work on Antarctica. She is pursuing her Master’s in European Studies at Maastricht University and graduated from Political Science from University Carlos III of Madrid.

Rosa Hoogerdijk

Research Assistant

Rosa was the student assistant of the project during the 2024-2025 academic year. She contibuted on development of the website, supported event organisation, and assisted with the broader setup of research activites. She has a Master’s in Tourism, Culture and Society, Eramus University Rotterdam and a Master’s in Arts and Heritage, Maastricht University.

Advisory board

Victoria Bates

Advisory Board Member

Victoria is a professor in Modern Medical History at the University of Bristol. She was awarded a UK research and Innovation Leaders Fellowship.

Jessica Mesman

Advisory Board Member

Jessica holds a Chair in "Complexity and Epistemic Diversity" at Maastricht University. Her field of expertise is Science and Technology.

Maarten van Herpen

Advisory Board Member

Marteen is the founder of Philips Africa Innovation Hub and Acacia Impact Innovation. He holds a PhD in Physics.

Roger Kneebone

Advisory Board Member

Roger is a professor of Surgical Education and Engagement Science at Imperial College London.

Carey Jewitt

Advisory Board Member

Carey is a professor of Technology and Learning at University College London. She is also a Fellow of the British Academy

Mimi Darcey

Advisory Board Member

Mimi is a Staff Anaesthetist in Royal Hobart Hospital, in Tasmania, Australia.

Jeremy Greene

Advisory Board Member

Jeremy is a professor of Medicine and History of Medicine at John Hopkins School of Medicine. His research is focused on the generic drug industry.

Kathleen Gregory

Advisory Board Member

Kathleen is a social scientist, which focuses her research on scholarly communication practices and infrastructure.

[About us]

We are delighted to introduce you to the Upcycled Clinic team. We bring a diverse range of expertise and backgrounds to make this project possible.
Please feel free to reach out to us via the project email address or to find our individual profiles on the Maastricht University page.

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Investigating THE AFTERLIFE OF Hospital MATERIALS

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The Upcycled Clinic is an ethnographic research project that explores the repurposing of  materials in hospitals as a new system of care.

Through fieldwork, interviews, open datasets, visual research and material experiments this project will offer new potentials for circularity within healthcare environments.

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