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01. December 2021

Hybrid healthcare IT on the rise

The newly launched BMBF accompanying research project "CoCre-HIT" focuses on needs-oriented, digital applications in the healthcare sector.

Better aligning digital applications in the healthcare sector with the needs of patients: this is the aim of the accompanying research project "CoCre-HIT", which is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with almost EUR 1.5 million.

The abbreviation "CoCre-HIT" stands for "Co-Creation and Sustainable Participation in the Development of Hybrid Health IT". It addresses two particular challenges in the development of applications for e-health and telemedicine. On the one hand, "participation" or patient involvement in the development of digital products is currently a major trend. If you take a closer look, however, it often becomes clear that participation formats are very different and vary from a few interviews to actual opportunities to have a say. One of the aims of CoCre-HIT is to systematize and prepare corresponding approaches and methods. On the other hand, the focus is on so-called "hybrid" digital systems, which, due to the current pandemic conditions, appear to be a promising support for communication and coordination in the health sector, but also for the promotion of social participation and well-being for people with health restrictions, especially under the constraints of contact restrictions. In this sense, hybrid means that IT systems should be able to support both face-to-face and online interactions.

Over the next three years (2021-2024), CoCre-HIT will accompany the development of hybrid health IT in seven technology development projects funded by the BMBF and support and accompany the projects in the application of co-creative and participatory methods.

Pushing things forward together

In CoCre-HIT, research and implementation partners from relevant areas work together at the interface between participation-oriented technology, health and ageing research:
 

  • Department of Information Systems / IT for the Ageing Society, University of Siegen, (deputy) Prof. Dr. Claudia Müller (head)
  • Dept. of Media/Digital Health and Intelligent User Interfaces, Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences (Prof. Dr. Alina Huldtgren)
  • Institute for Health, Ageing, Work and Technology, Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences (Prof. Dr. Andreas Hoff and Deputy Prof. Dr. Cordula Endter)
  • Bavarian Centre for Digital Care, Kempten (Prof. Dr. Johannes Zacher, Dr. Florian Fischer, Dr. Tobias Wöhrle, Barbara Weber-Fiori)
  • Institute for Gerontological Care and Nursing Research, Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences (Prof. Dr. Maik H.-J. Winter, Claudia Boscher)
  • SIBIS Institute for Social Research, Berlin (Dr. Sibylle Meyer)
  • Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology, St. Augustin (Prof. Dr. Stefan Decker, Elisabeth Stein)
  • Hühnergötter Agency, Bonn (Corinna Ruppel)
  • Landeszentrum Gesundheit NRW (Gaby Schütte and Stefan Feuerstein)

The starting signal was given in mid-November with a joint meeting of all partners, to which Prof. Claudia Müller had invited to Siegen. Due to the current pandemic situation, it was necessary to switch to a hybrid meeting at short notice. The first project meeting thus unintentionally became a test case for a successfully implemented collaboration in a mixed form with both on-site and online participants.

 "Health is a valuable asset. The Covid 19 pandemic is showing us that. The CoCre-HIT project focuses on how technologies can support people of different ages and in different life situations in such exceptional situations in order to promote health and quality of life. Our goal at the Institute for Health, Ageing, Work and Technology at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences is to make the needs of older people and their relatives visible in this context and to ensure that these are taken into account in the development of health IT." Represented by Prof. Dr. Cordula Endter
Dr. Cordula Endter
Ihre Ansprechperson
Dr.
Cordula Endter
Faculty of Social Sciences
02826 Görlitz
Furtstrasse 2
Building G I, Room 2.08
2nd floor
+49 3581 374-4421