Research into how designing information systems (IS) can help to digitally transform health care practices, organizations, and industries is a classical topic that has concerned researchers in our field for many years (Agarwal et al., 2010; Baird et al., 2018; Burton-Jones et al., 2019). The transformative effects that digital technologies have on the delivery of health care services is significant as data and evermore potent algorithms contribute to changes in the roles that citizens, patients, clinicians, health care managers, and researchers play in the delivery of health care services (Essén & Värlander, 2019; Jarvenpaa & Essén, 2023; Sunyaev et al., 2024). At the center of all these dynamics lies a key design challenge: how to integrate systems, algorithms, and data in a human-centered way (see also, Bardhan et al., 2020).

Asking ourselves how we design for human-centered health care services is not trivial because technological designs are one question but the other is how these designs interact with persons, providers, platforms, and professionals over time. The importance of getting these interactions ‘right’ is as straightforward as finding answers to this question is complicated (Wessel et al., 2023). ‘Classical’ information systems in hospitals such as electronic medical records (Agarwal et al., 2010; Burton-Jones & Volkoff, 2017; Hansen & Baroody, 2020; Oborn et al., 2011) serve as repositories of data that assist professionals in making decisions and, potentially, improve diagnostics in the digital age (Lebovitz et al., 2021, 2022). However, it is not only hospitals that transform, and it is not only electronic medical records that matter for transformations to occur. Laypersons have become more active when it comes to self-managing chronic conditions (Dadgar & Joshi, 2018; Wessel et al., 2019), using platforms to exchange ideas, self-help and find advice (Barrett et al., 2016; Fürstenau et al., 2021), as well as using artificial intelligence-based systems that help to prevent chronic conditions (Wessel et al., 2023). Building on these developments is an increasingly important discussion in health policy asking how digital technologies can be used to reorient incentives and make providers gain from patient outcomes as opposed to the volumes of services provided (Agarwal et al., 2020; M. Porter, 2010; M. E. Porter & Teisberg, 2006). Finally, the renewed interest of researchers in the role that data play for innovation in services, digital tools, and applications (Jarvenpaa and Markus 2018; Rothe et al. 2019; Thiebes et al. 2020; Vassilakopoulou et al. 2018), extends far beyond incremental improvement of diagnostic and therapeutic tools. Broader availability of new health data types such as from single-cell or multi-omic sequencing, 3-dimensional x-rays, and new MRT approaches, life sciences increasingly gain insights into early disease development. New health care applications, thus, can therefore become prospective, suggesting interventions on citizens who have not yet become ‘patients’. What matters then is to design in ways that effectively integrate these innovations in humans’ everyday lives.

We cast the net wide and welcome submissions that speak to the above-mentioned issues. Our understandings of the terms ‘design(s)’ and ‘designing’ are broad and not limited to applications of well-established approaches such as design science research (DSR) or action design research (ADR), which we welcome to our track. Indeed, we ask for submissions of all types that have the potential to contribute to our understanding of the above-mentioned phenomena, be these related to the importance of classical health care IT topics in the digital age, or questions related to the transformative potentials and impacts of digital data objects, and digital tools. Papers may be focused on original theory-oriented research, design-oriented research, empirical studies, or conceptual work. We are agnostic in terms of methodologies applied. Submissions may address the following topics, but are not limited to them:

• The changing role and management of digital health data for digital innovation for health and well-being
• New impact of digital health tools and digital data objects in- and outside of healthcare, e.g., in times of crisis
• A process perspective explaining dynamics of digital transformation in healthcare
• Change of professional roles, identities, and institutions for value creation in health
• New design of digital innovations for improving patients’ self-management of chronic conditions
• The role of data and tools as inhibitors or promote     rs for a disease-based health care system
• The role of data and tools like sensors, wearables technologies, and digital health apps as inhibitors or promote     rs for a patient-centric health care
• The role of digital tools like virtual coaching for autonomy of health care providers and patients
• The role of data and tools for disease intervention vs. prevention
• The relationship between classical hospital information systems and more recent digital innovations in health care
• Changing business models in the context of digital innovation in health care
• Changes in support for people in need for care, including elderly or handicapped, through digital technologies
• The role of new digital technologies like XR, web3.0 and machine learning for creating health data and for creating value from health data
• New modes of capturing value from digital health data, e.g., reimbursement strategies
• New ethical challenges from health data, considering privacy and security
• Digital tools and use of digital health data to connect different participants of health service networks, to support decision making and to improve logistical and organisational processes
• Design of digital tools and the role of IS to support integrated care and integrated planning spanning multiple care forms and/or steps in a patient’s pathway
• The role of digital well-being and what it means to design for well-being in a digital age

Track Chairs

• Lauri Wessel (European University Viadrina)
• Hannes Rothe (University of Duisburg-Essen)
• Melanie Reuter-Oppermann (Technical University Darmstadt)
• Roxana Ologeanu-Taddei (Toulouse Business School)
• Sirkka Jarvenpaa (UT Austin)

Associate Editors

• Angela Aristidou, University College London
• Paul Drews Leuphana, University Lüneburg
• Daniel Fürstenau, Freie Universität Berlin
• Martin Gersch, Freie Universität Berlin
• Tobias Kowatsch, Universität St. Gallen
• Hannes Schlieter Technical, University Dresden
• Franziska Bathelt Technical, University Dresden
• Stefanie Steinhäuser, OTH Amberg-Weiden
• Polyxeni Vassilakopoulou, University of Agder
• Anne-Katrin Witte, FernUni Hagen & Technical University of Berlin
• Manuel Trenz, University of Göttingen
• Torsten Eymann, Universitäty of Bayreuth
• Heiko Gewald, HS Neu-Ulm