Pre-conference Workshop: Leveraging Technology for Successful Implementation Studies

February 12th, 2026, 09:00 – 12:00 am CET

Purpose

This workshop aims to explore how implementation studies can be made more efficient by leveraging widely accessible everyday technologies, such as smartphones, wearables, voice assistants, and chatbots, to streamline processes, enhance data quality, and reduce resource demands.

Description and objective

This interactive workshop is divided into three parts. In the first part, we will identify common challenges in implementation studies. These may include resource constraints, variability across settings such as hospitals, clinics, and community environments, policy and regulatory barriers, organizational culture and leadership, communication and coordination issues, stakeholder engagement, intervention fidelity, adherence to data collection or intervention delivery protocols, and the sustainability or scale-up of interventions.

The second part introduces ways in which everyday technologies, such as smartphones, wearable devices, voice assistants, and conversational agents (including both rule-based and large language model–based systems), can support implementation studies. As a practical example, participants will explore the PRECIOUS platform, a design and trial service for precision digital therapeutics funded by the University Medicine Zurich [1,2,4,5], which can be also used for digitally supported implementation studies. Several hands-on demonstrations will showcase the capabilities of PRECIOUS, especially for educational, behavioral, and cognitive interventions, including patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), ecological momentary assessments (EMAs), and a novel agentic interview service [3]. Participants will be invited to provide feedback on unmet needs for their implementation studies, and these requirements will help inform future versions of PRECIOUS.

In the final part of the workshop, we will reflect on how the challenges identified in the first part can be addressed through the technologies introduced in the second part. Participants will also discuss potential barriers to adopting these technologies and explore strategies to overcome them, with the goal of enabling more efficient and effective implementation studies.

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to…

1. clearly describe common challenges encountered in implementation studies,
2. understand how everyday technologies can be applied to support implementation science,
3. critically reflect on barriers to technology use and identify strategies to address them, and
4. strengthen their competencies at the interface of technology management, implementation and health sciences.

Upon request, participants will receive access to tutorial video clips and the PRECIOUS platform after the workshop.

Who Should Attend?
This workshop welcomes researchers, practitioners, and innovators from health, technology, and management who are interested in how everyday technologies (such as smartphones, wearables, voice assistants, and conversational agents) can enhance implementation studies. Experienced implementation scientists are
especially invited to share and discuss current challenges in the field. Open-minded participants from any background are encouraged to join, as the workshop is designed to support knowledge exchange and interdisciplinary collaboration. No prior technical knowledge is required.

Pre-work
Participants are expected to complete brief preparatory readings and engage with an online collaborative tool prior to the workshop. All pre-reading materials and access to the online tool will be provided to registered participants in advance to support active engagement during the workshop.

Chair: Prof. Dr. Tobias Kowatsch