Back pain from lifting incorrectly? A wearable beeps – before it hurts. Esteban Bayro-Kaiser tells host Rasmus Cloes in the Digital Public Health Podcast how his company WearHealth protects industrial workers.

Esteban Bayro-Kaiser studied electrical engineering in Chile and earned his doctorate in artificial intelligence at the University of Bremen. His research led to the development of WearHealth, a startup that uses sensors to make workplaces safer. The goal was clear from the outset: to use technology in a meaningful way to solve real health problems.

At the heart of WearHealth are small sensors that are worn on clothing. They detect dangerous movements in real time – such as lifting incorrectly from the back – and immediately provide feedback to the wearer via vibration. Companies receive anonymized evaluations and can design workplaces to be more ergonomic.

A key concern is that employee data remains anonymous. No one is monitored individually. It's about patterns, not people. No audio or video recordings are made. According to Esteban, this principle is crucial to the high level of acceptance of the system among employees.

Whether in logistics, manufacturing, or even mining, WearHealth can reduce unhealthy movements by over 70 percent, according to Esteban. Employees report less pain and greater safety, and even recommend the system to others. WearHealth is already active in Europe and South America, and will soon be available in the US. The long-term vision is to create healthier workplaces worldwide.

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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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