DIGESA – Promoting Digital Health in (Advanced) Older Age

The digital transformation of the healthcare system in Germany offers new potential for more efficient and safer healthcare as well as for strengthening patient empowerment. Older adults can benefit from innovations in digital health services and applications such as the electronic patient record (ePA). However, this requires digital skills and digital health literacy - both of which are significantly below average among older generations. Accompanying initiatives such as the “ePA Coaches” in Rhineland-Palatinate or the “Digital Health Ambassadors” in Baden-Württemberg and Saxony specifically support older people in the field of digital health. 
In cooperation with such peer-to-peer programs, the DIGESA project aims to use mixed-methods approaches to investigate longitudinal effects on digital health in older age and to identify facilitating and hindering factors influencing the use of digital health services at both the individual and environmental levels. Based on these findings, two transfer concepts are to be developed: first, a peer-to-peer educational concept for digital health in older age, designed for implementation in selected institutions within the BAGSO’s DigitalPakt Alter; and second, a (municipal) educational concept for patient/client education in health prevention and long-term care for providers of elderly care services. 
The interdisciplinary research project includes two PhD positions as well. Cooperation partners are Medienanstalt Rheinland-Pfalz, Landesmedienzentrum Baden-Württemberg (LMZ), Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft der Seniorenorganisationen e.V. (BAGSO) and Elisabeth Jaeger Haus in Bad Kreuznach.

The DIGESA project (funding code: 13HAW01PX4) is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) as part of the funding guideline „HAW-ForschungsPraxis“ of the research funding programme „Research at UAS“.

Project lead
Prof. Dr. Michael Doh - michael.doh@kh-freiburg.de
Prof.in Dr. Nadine Konopik - nadine.konopik@kh-freiburg.de

Research associates
Sarah Haberstroh - sarah.haberstroh@kh-freiburg.de
Anna Tapiwa Marange - anna.marange@kh-freiburg.de
Linda Goebl - linda.goebl@kh-freiburg.de
Siglinde Bröder - siglinde.broeder@kh-freiburg.de

Project duration
January 2026 – December 2029