Bremen – An older woman sits in front of her smartphone. The app that her doctor recommended is supposed to help her organize her medication. But after several attempts, she gives up in frustration: “This isn't for me.” This scene is emblematic of a fundamental problem with digital health in Germany: a lot of things are technically feasible, but access is not the same for everyone.

The position paper published in the Federal Health Bulletin by the Digital Public Health department of the German Society for Public Health shows how digital health solutions can be implemented nationwide and in a socially just way. The researchers call for strategies that reach all citizens, regardless of age, income or technical affinity.

Opportunities and risks of digitalization

Digital health services such as telemedicine or health apps offer enormous opportunities. They can make healthcare more efficient and facilitate access. However, the position paper warns that if vulnerable groups – such as older people or the socially disadvantaged – are not considered when developing such solutions, the digital divide threatens to grow.

Dr. Laura Maaß, spokesperson of the department and postdoc at the Leibniz ScienceCampus Digital Public Health Bremen, puts it clearly: “I am very pleased that the Bundesgesundheitsblatt is giving us the platform to focus on the digitalization of public health, because time is of the essence! Germany needs digital solutions that are accessible to everyone. We need to promote health literacy and overcome the digital divide, otherwise we will lose the potential of digitalization for prevention and care.”

Health literacy as the key

One of the core problems is digital health literacy: many people cannot use apps or other digital tools properly. Yet the ability to understand and use such applications is crucial to making health services truly accessible. Interactive and participatory approaches could help to better involve patients and thus strengthen personal responsibility for health.

Stephanie Hoffmann, co-spokesperson for the department, adds: “New digital services for prevention, health promotion and health care must take into account people's health needs and individual requirements. Only then can they truly reach people and contribute to equal health opportunities.”

What is missing: research and teaching

The position paper also criticizes the fact that the field of digital public health is still in its infancy in Germany. Degree programs rarely address the topic, and research focuses too heavily on clinical applications. Prevention and health promotion are often left out – both in research and teaching, as well as in health policy, which focuses almost exclusively on the digitalization of medical health care. This must be addressed urgently in order to think about digitalization more broadly and sustainably.

One system for all

The researchers emphasize: Digitization in healthcare must not be an end in itself. The aim is to reduce health inequalities, strengthen prevention and make care more efficient – without excluding anyone. To achieve this, politics, science and practice must work together.

The Leibniz ScienceCampus Digital Public Health Bremen

The Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS, the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Medicine MEVIS and the University of Bremen have been cooperating in the research network since the beginning of the funding. The University of Oldenburg and OFFIS – Institute for Information Technology have been won as new partners for the second funding phase.

The Bremen Leibniz ScienceCampus Digital Public Health is one of 21 ScienceCampi focusing on a specific topic and serving to strategically network Leibniz institutes with universities and other regional partners. The aim is to create networks to further develop the respective research area and to strengthen the scientific environment. Leibniz ScienceCampi conduct strategic research, promote interdisciplinarity in topics, projects and methods, raise the profile of the respective location and strengthen its research profile.

Original publication

Maaß, L., Dockweiler, C., Hocke-Bolte, Z. et al. Digital Public Health in Deutschland: Status quo, Herausforderungen und Zukunftsperspektiven. Bundesgesundheitsbl (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00103-024-03989-0

Electronic patient records, telemedicine and big data: the importance of data in the healthcare sector is growing. Since the coronavirus pandemic at the latest, it has become clear that this topic affects us all. In the 19th episode of the Digital Public Health Podcast, host Rasmus Cloes talks to Dr. Timm Intemann about how the handling of data in health research is changing.

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One of the main topics of the conversation was citizen proximity: Jörn explained how digital interfaces, dashboards and mobile applications facilitate contact between citizens and the health department. Real-time data makes it possible to identify health trends in neighborhoods more quickly and to react to them in a targeted manner. Another topic was data protection. How can authorities exchange data securely and efficiently? Jörn showed how the health department is mastering the balance between technical feasibility and legal requirements – a challenge that is particularly sensitive in the healthcare sector.

Digitization is also changing the internal work culture. Training, new processes and an open error culture are necessary to manage the change. The goal: more efficiency and more time for direct contact with citizens. Finally, Jörn shared a vision: a health department that could become a model for other cities with smart prevention and innovative data solutions. With more freedom for personal care and faster response to health issues.

In this podcast episode, we discuss the following topics in detail:

• How digital interfaces, dashboards and mobile applications facilitate contact between citizens and the health department.
• How public authorities can exchange data securely and efficiently.
• To what extent digitalization is also changing work culture.

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Funding, research, networking – the AI Center for Health Care is training the next generation of talent for the future of healthcare. However, they face numerous hurdles along the way, some related to bureaucracy and some to unequal resources.

In this episode of the Digital Public Health Podcast, host Rasmus Cloes talks to Dr. Monika Michaelis, the coordinator of the AI Center for Health Care at the U Bremen Research Alliance (UBRA). It turns out that Bremen is becoming a leading location for the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare, and Monika explains how the center is helping to bring research findings directly into clinical practice.

Monika provides insights into interdisciplinary projects covering areas such as imaging, prosthesis development and the early detection of dementia. She explains how the center brings together researchers from a wide range of disciplines – from psychology to materials science – and thus maximizes the clinical benefits of AI applications. But not everything runs smoothly: access to health data remains a challenge that the team is particularly concerned with. But founding a company also seems to be more difficult in Bremen than in other cities. The center focuses on promoting young scientists. Monika describes how targeted support and networking are used to attract young talent to AI and health research.

In this episode, you will learn:

• AI and medicine: how the AI Center for Health Care is rethinking healthcare
• Interdisciplinary innovation: Why the interaction of different fields of expertise is so important
• Bremen as an AI location: How the UBRA is strengthening the region
• Promoting the next generation: How young talents are specifically supported
• Data access as an obstacle: Why health data is so central and often difficult to access

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YouTube | Spotify | Apple | Deezer

More info

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