White Paper: Open Digital Health - accelerating transparent and scalable health promotion and treatment

Citation

Kwasnicka D, Keller J, Perski O, Potthoff S, ten Hoor GA, Ainsworth B, Crutzen R, Dohle S, van Dongen A, Heino M, Henrich JF, Knox L, König LM, Maltinsky W & McCallum C (2022) White Paper: Open Digital Health - accelerating transparent and scalable health promotion and treatment. Health Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2022.2046482

Abstract
In this White Paper, we outline recommendations from the perspective of health psychology and behavioural science, addressing three research gaps: (1) What methods in the health psychology research toolkit can be best used for developing and evaluating digital health tools? (2) What are the most feasible strategies to reuse digital health tools across populations and settings? (3) What are the main advantages and challenges of sharing (openly publishing) data, code, intervention content and design features of digital health tools? We provide actionable suggestions for researchers joining the continuously growing Open Digital Health movement, poised to revolutionise health psychology research and practice in the coming years. This White Paper is positioned in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring how digital health tools have rapidly gained popularity in 2020-2022, when world-wide health promotion and treatment efforts rapidly shifted from face-to-face to remote delivery. This statement is written by the Directors of the not-for-profit Open Digital Health Initiative (n = 6), Experts attending the European Health Psychology Society Synergy Expert Meeting (n = 17), and the initiative consultant following a two-day meeting (19-20th August 2021).

Keywords
Open Digital Health; mHealth; technology; open science; healthcare; treatment

Notes
Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Online Additional co-authors: Judith Nalukwago, Efrat Neter, Johanna Nurmi, Manuel Spitschan, Samantha B. Van Beurden, L. Nynke Van der Laan, Kathrin Wunsch, Jasper J. J. Levink & Robbert Sanderman

Journal
Health Psychology Review

People

Dr Wendy Maltinsky

Senior Lecturer, Psychology