Key Research Initiative

Digital Health Care

Profile

 The Key Research Initiative (KRI) Digital Health Care brings together the fields of economics, management, information systems research and sociology to investigate how human behaviour, information technologies and social and organisational networks shape digital healthcare, considering particularly the role of social inequality in these mechanisms. The KRI investigates how patients, providers and carers adopt and coordinate new digital technologies, and how incentives, networks and inequalities influence effective and equitable care. A key focus is on ageing societies, where digital technologies and social dynamics are increasingly determining the quality and accessibility of care.

Objectives

• To promote interdisciplinary collaboration among social sciences and economics researchers in health-related research.
• Integrating and training early-career researchers.
• Establishing outreach activities to bridge the gap between academia and practice.
• Enhancing the international visibility of research on health, society and digital innovation and transformation.

Research

Research focuses on four main themes:

• Social networks and inequality.
• Digital health innovation, transformation and operations.
• Behaviour and incentives of care staff/providers in digitally supported systems.
• Ageing societies and digital care infrastructures.

The KRI utilises interdisciplinary methods such as applied econometrics, behavioural experiments, network analyses and data-driven, computationally intensive theory development and testing in healthcare contexts.

Joint activities

• Annual internal and international workshops.
• Colloquium series.
• Inviting visiting researchers with a background in digital healthcare.
• Outreach activities to the Faculty of Medicine (e.g. through workshops and colloquia).

Collaboration

• Collaboration with partner institutions such as GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.
• Involvement in the university’s Key Profile Areas (KPA), such as the KPA Aging-Associated Diseases and the Centre for Health Services Research Cologne (ZVFK)

Teaching

• Integration of concepts and methods from digital health research into bachelor’s and master’s programmes.
  Development of interdisciplinary modules open to students from various programmes.

Transfer

• Establishment of policy and innovation labs involving practitioners and policymakers.
• Annual 'Digital Health Care Forum' to facilitate networking with policymakers, healthcare providers/care staff and digital innovators.
• Student projects on digital health topics.
• Dissemination of research findings to relevant stakeholders and the public (e.g. via social media and the press).