Co‑designing Digital Health Applications

Workshop participants included experts from Fulda University of Applied Sciences, the Technical University of Munich, the Center for Telemedicine Bad Kissingen, as well as general practitioners and patients from Bayreuth and the district of Kulmbach. Together, they discussed the development, prescription, and integration of DiGA into healthcare delivery. In addition to regulatory requirements and approval procedures, current market developments were also presented, along with an example of a digital health application.

A key added value of the workshop was the active involvement of various stakeholder groups. In interactive working sessions, both patients and general practitioners shared their experiences and, together with researchers and industry experts, evaluated current challenges and explored potential solutions for real-world healthcare settings. The mutual learning process was particularly valuable: researchers and physicians gained direct insights into patients’ experiences, while patients developed a better understanding of the development and implementation of DiGA. The workshop clearly demonstrated the importance of translating scientific findings into practical, everyday solutions.

Based on the discussions, several central principles for the successful introduction and use of DiGA were identified. These insights will now feed into the next phase of the German-Australian research project. In Australia, further workshops and online surveys will be conducted in collaboration with the German researchers to examine the preferences of various stakeholder groups—including users, physicians, and policymakers.