Benjamin Lipp

Project title

LOGICARE: Situating the Logistics of Care

What is your project about?

LOGICARE studies the taken-for-granted yet vital logistics that make healthcare possible: how the right supplies arrive in the right place at the right time. This has become especially important as hospitals try to reduce costs while treating more patients more quickly. I argue that this challenge is not simply a technical matter with one rational solution. It is also a question of values: how different actors define what counts as “good” logistics. A hospital manager concerned with costs, for example, may have different priorities than a nurse who needs to be prepared for unforeseen complications. My project studies logistics and clinical staff, and how they negotiate logistical priorities in everyday hospital operations. By doing so, we will better understand how value judgments made in the background shape the efficiency, sustainability and quality of care at the frontline.

How did you become interested in your particular field of research?

I have always been fascinated by pneumatic tube systems: a seemingly unremarkable but highly impactful technology for moving things around hospitals. In my field, scholars have long been interested in the often-invisible people, devices and infrastructures that make modern life possible. When we think of care, we usually think of what doctors and nurses do with patients. This is also reflected in the common call for “more warm hands.” Yet this perspective can overlook the mundane logistical work that healthcare depends on. That dissonance made me wonder: What difference does a technology like a pneumatic tube system make for nurses and doctors? This initial puzzle then led me to explore how newer technologies, such as robotics and AI, are reshaping the logistics of care today.

What are the scientific challenges and perspectives in your project?

The main scientific challenge is to study something that is everywhere in hospitals but often remains implicit. Logistics usually becomes visible only when something breaks down: much-needed medication has expired, the right syringe is missing, or a delivery is delayed. Such situations happen regularly, but they are difficult to research as they unfold. That is why the project “situates” logistics: it follows hospital staff in their everyday work to understand how logistics is actually done and what challenges arise in practice. The question then is how to study “values.” Here, we use the concept of valuation, which treats values not as abstract principles but as part of practice. When a logistician proposes a new solution, or a nurse finds a workaround, they implicitly make judgments about what logistics ought to be.

What is your estimate of the impact, which your project may have to society in the long term?

This project will raise awareness of how important logistics is for good care. Logistics is not a neutral background that simply makes hospitals work. It actively shapes the conditions under which care becomes possible. Patients waiting in an emergency room, or care workers physically strained from walking long distances every day, already experience this. But we need a broader societal discussion about the logistical values behind such experiences. More concretely, the project will contribute to a more human-centred approach to hospital logistics. Logisticians are very good at maximising efficiency, but good logistics also requires flexibility, preparedness and wellbeing – values that are harder to plan for and measure. A key part of the project will therefore be to work with logistics colleagues and hospitals to develop new ways of organising logistics in healthcare.

Which impact do you expect the Sapere Aude programme will have on your career as a researcher?

Receiving the Sapere Aude grant is a great honour and a new high point in my career. It will allow me to establish a research group at DTU dedicated to studying the logistical infrastructures of healthcare. I am very excited to work with a team of talented researchers and to embark on this journey together. The project will also be an important stepping stone for scaling this research agenda to the European level. Denmark is a forerunner in this area and many healthcare systems abroad are undergoing changes similar to those currently taking place here.