The last episode showed that digital solutions are only of limited help to people waiting for a donor organ. Host Rasmus Cloes discusses with Bremen's Senator for Health Claudia Bernhard which digital gaps politicians can fill. She draws on lessons learned from Bremen's successful COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

Claudia Bernhard begins by emphasizing that the legal framework for organ donation is regulated at the federal level. Nevertheless, she sees opportunities for action at the state level, particularly in targeted information and education efforts. Federal council initiatives could enable states such as Bremen to provide impetus at the federal level, but structural improvements at the local level are at least as important for raising public awareness of the issue.

She advocates a long-term, dialogue-oriented approach to strengthen public trust. With its vaccination campaign, Hashtag#Bremen has shown how successful education can work: through low-threshold communication, direct engagement in neighborhoods, and multi-perspective approaches that take cultural and linguistic diversity into account.

At the end of the conversation, the focus turns to the future: Claudia Bernhard advocates a prevention-oriented, neighborhood-based healthcare system in which organ donation is considered a matter of course, along with nutrition, exercise, and other issues. The key message is that only through continuous education, cultural sensitivity, and genuine investment in local healthcare structures can long-term social change be achieved—including in the area of organ donation.

A special feature of this episode: in order to shed light on this complex topic from different angles, we also included perspectives from Bärbel Fangmann (liver transplant recipient), Susi Knöller (senior physician and head of kidney transplantation) and PD Dr. Solveig Lena Hansen (university lecturer for ethics at the University of Bremen and member of the Standing Committee on Organ Transplantation at the German Medical Association).

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In this episode of the Digital Public Health Podcast, Rasmus Cloes talks to Sonja Schäfer, the organ donation officer for the state of Bremen. The topic is the new digital organ donor registry, which has been available in Germany since March 2024. 

Together, they explore whether and how digitization can help encourage more people to decide for or against organ donation—and whether that alone is enough.
The digital registry makes it easy to register your organ donation wishes online. However, access is anything but easy: high barriers to registration, a lack of awareness, and a lack of digital education are hindering its use. Sonja Schäfer explains why the 45 to 60 age group is the most active – and why personal conversations with relatives remain the most important factor.

Organ donation: building trust through education
Whether through social media, school lessons, or traditional living wills, education works on many levels. Sonja Schäfer describes how she raises awareness of the issue among young people and why a single conversation within the family is often more decisive than any technological solution. Listen now to find out why digitalization can only be part of the solution – and how real education can strengthen organ donation willingness in the long term.

Listen now and find out why obesity apps still have a lot of potential – and what needs to happen for them to really support those affected. Subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss an episode!

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In this episode of the Digital Public Health Podcast, Rasmus Cloes and Anouk Wellmann discuss the potential of digital health applications (DiGA) for treating obesity.

Anouk, who studies health and care sciences at the University of Lübeck, explains the requirements that obesity apps must meet in order to be recognized as medical therapy. She wrote her bachelor's thesis on this topic at the University of Bremen. The resulting paper, “One app fits all? Ethical reflection on digital health applications in obesity care,” was written in the working group of PD Dr. Solveig Hansen at the Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP) at the University of Bremen. In our podcast, she provides insights into her research on DiGAs and discusses why it is often difficult to prove the long-term benefits of these apps. 

Medical device or lifestyle app? Apps for obesity must be certified as medical devices – but to what extent can they meet the complex requirements of a chronic disease such as obesity? Anouk explains how current apps are structured and why, despite medical certification, they do not always reflect the individual needs of those affected.

Ethics and individualization: Where do obesity apps stand? Another central topic of the episode is ethical questions: Are the needs of patients being adequately addressed? And how can DiGAs be integrated into a multimodal treatment concept that also offers long-term support?

Listen now and find out why obesity apps still have a lot of potential – and what needs to happen for them to really support those affected. Subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss an episode!

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How can digital health applications become fairer, more inclusive, and better? In conversation with host Rasmus Cloes, Prof. Dr. Ansgar Gerhardus explains how a new framework helps to evaluate digital services in a structured way – so that they not only work technically, but also really reach the people for whom they are intended.

New health apps are created every day – but not all of them are useful or safe. The new framework developed by Ansgar and his team helps to maintain an overview and systematically evaluate digital tools. Similar to the TÜV for cars, it provides clear guidelines for ensuring the quality of digital interventions before they are put into practice.

From target group understanding to data protection and accessibility, the framework covers all relevant dimensions that are crucial for equitable digital healthcare. It also highlights issues such as language, access, and cultural sensitivity—aspects that are often neglected.

Who benefits from the framework? Startups, developers, health insurance companies—anyone who works with digital health solutions benefits from the structured approach. It not only helps identify problems early on, but also saves resources in the long term. Especially in the early stages of development, it is invaluable for avoiding blind spots and creating more equitable offerings.

Ansgar reports on two pilot projects – including a chatbot for family caregivers – and how the framework helped identify critical issues early on. A university also used it to self-evaluate an extensive program – with the conclusion: “We wish we had had it sooner!”

The framework is currently available as a Word document and may soon be available as an online tool. The goal is to make it even easier and more intuitive to use, including a reminder function, filter options, and integration into project management workflows. After all, structured development is the first step toward greater equity in digital public health.

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