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Working Groups

Consumer Health Informatics (CHI)

Activity from 1st January to 31st December 2021

Due to the ongoing corona pandemic, the WG organised a virtual working meeting in the first quarter of 2021. In this context, WG member Jochen Meyer (OFFIS e.V., Oldenburg) presented study results on the acceptance and use of the corona warning app. (The preprint of the study can be found at arxiv.org/abs/2011.11317). The participants discussed the informative results in depth and made references to the introduction of the electronic patient file - ePA - of the statutory health insurance funds, which has been an offer for all statutorily insured individuals in Germany since 1st January 2021. This assessment was also supported by the second keynote speech by Martin Wiesner (Heilbronn University). He presented the perspectives of citizens on the ePA introduction, especially with a focus on the "early ePA adopters" who shared their "experiences" via Twitter. Based on this impulse and subsequent discussions, the participants decided to design an online survey on the awareness and intensity of the use of the ePA in Germany. This effort was continued in the second quarter. The online survey started on 2nd November 2021 and ran until February 2022. (First results will be presented at the 67th Annual Conference in Kiel in the form of a panel discussion and discussed with representatives from different areas of the health care system).

The DMEA 2021 was also initially postponed to the summer due to the pandemic and finally held as a purely online format. Monika Pobiruchin (Heilbronn University) and Marcus Müschenich (Eternity.Health, Berlin) were responsible for the session "Lessons Learned: Half a Year of DiGA in Care". In the session, start-ups and patient groups presented their apps and DiGAs. The recorded session was available to interested parties on the DMEA platform.

Veronika Strotbaum (Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL)) and Monika Pobiruchin wrote a chapter on digital health applications (DiGAs) in the Springer book "Personal Health Informatics" entitled "Health App by Prescription: The German Nation-Wide Model". (The book is expected to be published in summer 2022).

The two WG members Martin Wiesner and Björn Schreiweis (University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel) were guest editors for the special issue "Information Technology's Role in Global Healthcare Systems" in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph/special_issues/healthcare_systems ) in 2021. The special issue comprises 11 contributions and is available in open access at the link above.

Additionally, the WG was represented by member Benjamin Kinast (University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel) in the consultation process on the topic of "Processing of data from the electronic patient file for research purposes according to §363 (8) SGB V".

The research paper of the Heilbronn colleagues (Monika Pobiruchin, Martin Wiesner, Richard Zowalla) on the distribution of tweets and link categories was included in the Best Paper Selection of the IMIA Yearbook 2021 in the section Consumer Health Informatics and Education.

In the run-up to the 66th Annual Conference (virtual), the regular WG meeting took place on 21st September 2021. During this meeting, the WG leadership presented the current and past activities of the last 12 months. Ten WG members were welcomed to the meeting.

In the reporting period, the WG or individual members published various topic-related publications, which are listed below:

  • Beckers R, Strotbaum V: Telepflege – Telemedizin in der Pflege. In: Marx, G., Roissant, R., Marx, N. (Hrsg.) (2021): Telemedizin: Grundlagen und praktische Anwendung in stationären und ambulanten Einrichtungen. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

  • Hammel G, Woll W, Baumann M, Scherz C, Maia M, Behrisch B, Borgmann SO, Eichinger M, Gardecki J, Heyen NB, Icks A, Pobiruchin M, Weschke S. Bürgerwissenschaftliche Forschungsansätze in Medizin und Gesundheitsforschung. TATuP - Zeitschrift für Technikfolgenabschätzung in Theorie und Praxis (2021). 30/3: 63–69. DOI: 10.14512/tatup.30.3.

  • Kinast, B.; Lutz, M.; Schreiweis, B. Telemonitoring of Real-World Health Data in Cardiology: A Systematic Review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 9070. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179070

In addition, individual WG members contributed their respective expertise in the following formats or interviews:

The WG met regularly for telephone and web conferences for the purpose of exchange and planning of activities. A total of four regular telephone conferences took place in the reporting period, to which invitations were sent by e-mail or via the WG website.

In addition, there were smaller, topic-specific coordination rounds, e.g. on the conception of the ePA survey. The WG was always able to welcome new people interested in the topic of consumer health informatics to the web conferences. The participants of the web conferences and interested parties received a summary of the proceedings afterwards.

Interested parties from different areas of the health care system were and are always invited to participate in the telephone conferences and to contribute their own suggestions and questions. Membership in the WG is not required here. The WG is happy to have an interdisciplinary composition from practice and science.

Term of office of the leaders and their deputies
September 2020 - September 2023