Research team
Expertise
Melanie E. Hoste is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Antwerp with the Primary and Interdisciplinary Care Antwerp (ELIZA) and Laboratory of Medical Microbiology in Belgium. She graduated with a Bachelors in Biochemistry from the University of Surrey, UK, and pursued a Masters in Social & Cultural Anthropology at KU Leuven in Belgium, graduating in 2017. Melanie worked in consultancy in EU public affairs, focusing in healthcare policies. She then joined the communications team at the University of Antwerp as a Communications Manager, where she managed internal and external communications for EU projects on infectious diseases and pandemic preparedness. Melanie started her doctoral work in 2020 where her research focussed on the implementation of rapid diagnostics for acute respiratory tract infections in European primary care settings. She conducted her PhD under the supervision of Prof. Sibyl Anthierens and Prof. Herman Goossens (University of Antwerp) and Prof. Sarah Tonkin-Crine (University of Oxford). During four years, she conducted qualitative studies on stakeholder and clinician views on implementing rapid diagnostics in Europe as part of an EU-project (VALUE-Dx). She was also part of the social science Work Package in RECOVER, an EU-project funded at the started of the COVID-19 pandemic, to conduct qualitative studies on clinician and patient views of delivering and seeking healthcare services in primary care settings. She began her Postdoctoral Research position in October 2024 where she continues to conduct qualitative research in the field of implementation science, with a focus on infectious diseases and pandemic preparedness, spanning across multiple European countries as part of two EU-funded projects (ECRAID and PROACT EU-Response). She is currently researching patients', including vulnerable populations, experiences in accessing clinical trials, and clinicians' and stakeholders' experiences in implementing and delivering clinical trials. In addition to her research duties, Melanie is co-supervising Master students' master theses and is involved in teaching qualitative methods to Master students.