Track 6: Digital Health and Wellbeing

Designing for health and well-being in a digital age: Integrating systems, algorithms, and data in the quest for human-centeredness

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

AEs

• 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

Literature

Agarwal, R., Dugas, M., Gao, G. (Gordon), & Kannan, P. K. (2020). Emerging technologies and analytics for a new era of value-centered marketing in healthcare. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-019-00692-4

Agarwal, R., Gao, G., DesRoches, C., & Jha, A. K. (2010). Research Commentary—The Digital Transformation of Healthcare: Current Status and the Road Ahead. Information Systems Research, 21(4), 796–809. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.1100.0327

Baird, A., Angst, C. M., & Oborn, E. (2018). Research Curation: Health Information Technology. MIS Ouarterly.

Bardhan, I., Chen, H., & Karahanna, E. (2020). Connecting Systems, Data, and People: A Multidisciplinary Research Roadmap for Chronic Disease Management. Management Information Systems Quarterly, 44(1), 185–200.

Barrett, M., Oborn, E., & Orlikowski, W. (2016). Creating value in online communities: The sociomaterial configuring of strategy, platform, and stakeholder engagement. Information Systems Research, 27(4), 704–723. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2016.0648

Burton-Jones, A., Akhlaghpour, S., Ayre, S., Barde, P., Andrew, S., & Sullivan, C. (2019). Changing the conversation on evaluating digital transformation in healthcare: Insights from an institutional analysis. Information and Organization.

Burton-Jones, A., & Volkoff, O. (2017). How Can We Develop Contextualized Theories of Effective Use? A Demonstration in the Context of Community-Care Electronic Health Records. Information Systems Research, 28(3), 468–489. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2017.0702

Dadgar, M., & Joshi, K. D. (2018). The Role of Information and Communication Technology in Self-Management of Chronic Diseases: An Empirical Investigation through Value Sensitive Design. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 19(2), 86–112. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00485

Essén, A., & Värlander, S. W. (2019). How technology-afforded practices at the micro-level can generate change at the field level: Theorizing the recursive mechanism actualized in Swedish rheumatology 2000-2014. MIS Quarterly: Management Information Systems, 43(4), 1155–1176. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2019/12164

Fürstenau, D., Klein, S., Vogel, A., & Auschra, C. (2021). Multi-sided platform and data-driven care research: A longitudinal case study on business model innovation for improving care in complex neurological diseases. Electronic Markets. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-021-00461-8

Hansen, S., & Baroody, J. A. (2020). Electronic health records and the logics of care: Complementarity and conflict in the U.S. Healthcare system. Information Systems Research, 31(1), 57–75. https://doi.org/10.1287/ISRE.2019.0875

Jarvenpaa, S. L., & Essén, A. (2023). Data sustainability: Data governance in data infrastructures across technological and human generations. Information and Organization, 33(1), 100449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2023.100449

Jarvenpaa, S.L. and Markus, M.L. Data Perspective in Digital Platforms: Three Tales of Genetic Platforms, 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island, Hawaii, January 4-8. 2018.

Lebovitz, S., Levina, N., & Lifshitz-Assaf, H. (2021). Is AI Ground Truth Really True? The Dangers of Training and Evaluating AI Tools Based on Experts’ Know-What. Management Information Systems Quarterly, 45(3), 1501–1526.

Lebovitz, S., Lifshitz-Assaf, H., & Levina, N. (2022). To Engage or Not to Engage with AI for Critical Judgments: How Professionals Deal with Opacity When Using AI for Medical Diagnosis. Organization Science, 33(1), 126–148. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.1549

Oborn, E., Barrett, M., & Davidson, E. (2011). Unity in Diversity: Electronic Patient Record Use in Multidisciplinary Practice. Information Systems Research, 22(3), 547–564. https://doi.org/doi:10.1287/isre.1110.0372

Porter, M. (2010). What Is Value in Health Care? – Supplementary Appendix 2. New England Journal of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp1011024.This

Porter, M. E., & Teisberg, E. (2006). Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results. Harvard BUsiness Review Press.

Rothe, H., Jarvenpaa, S.L., and Penninger, A. 2019. How Do Entrepreneurial Firms Appropriate Value In Bio Data Infrastructures: An Exploratory Qualitative Study, European Conference on Information Systems, June 8-14, Stockholm, Sweden.

Sunyaev, A., Fürstenau, D., & Davidson, E. (2024). Reimagining Digital Health. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 66(3), 249–260. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-024-00870-x

Thiebes, S., Toussaint, P. A., Ju, J., Ahn, J. H., Lyytinen, K., and Sunyaev, A. 2020. “Valuable Genomes: Taxonomy and Archetypes of Business Models in Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing,” Journal of Medical Internet Research (22:1). (https://doi.org/10.2196/14890).

Vassilakopoulou, P.,Skorve, E., Aanestad, M. “A Commons Perspective on Genetic Data Governance: The Case of BCA Data.” Twenty-fourth European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) Proceedings, Istanbul, Turkey, 2016.

Wessel, L., Davidson, E. J., Barquet, A. P., Rothe, H., Peters, O., & Megges, H. (2019). Configuration in Smart Service Systems: A Practice-based Inquiry. Information Systems Journal, 29(6), 1256–1281. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12268

Wessel, L., Sundermeier, J., Rothe, H., Hanke, S., Baiyere, A., Rappert, F., & Gersch, M. (2023). Designing as Trading-off: A Practice-based view on Smart Service Systems. European Journal of Information Systems. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376681860_Designing_as_trading-off_a_practice-based_view_on_smart_service_systems/related#fullTextFileContent