Please join us at the Scale-IT-Up Workshop 2025 – Scaling Up Care for Older Adults in Porto, Portugal, 20 & 21 February. This workshop is in conjunction with the 18th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies – BIOSTEC 2025.

Key Question: How to Scale Up Care for Older Adults Successfully?

As the global population ages, so does the demand for effective, scalable, and sustainable care solutions for older adults, creating critical challenges in healthcare and societal support systems. The “Scale-IT-up 2025” workshop aims to explore and expand the role of digital health technologies in addressing these challenges, specifically focusing on the shortage and burden of caregivers. We also encourage discussing digitally enabled care concepts such as at-home hospitalization or virtual wards, which innovate traditional care concepts. This workshop will serve as a platform for researchers, technologists, and practitioners to share insights, innovations, and strategies for integrating digital health solutions into care for older adults.

We will present our latest research and offer a workshop:

1. Huynh, P., Adoption and Challenges of Digital Technologies in Home Care for Older Adults in Austria: Bridging Practical and Managerial Perspectives, In Proc of the 18th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies – Volume 2: HEALTHINF, ISBN 978-989-758-731-3, ISSN 2184-4305, pp 1057-1066. [PDF]
2. Nißen, M., Prinz, S., Beyond Safety: Towards Non-Stigmatizing Mobile Emergency Watches that Empower Older Adults, In Proc of the 18th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies – Volume 2: HEALTHINF, ISBN 978-989-758-731-3 Image, ISSN 2184-4305, 1092-1098. [PDF]
3. Pfitzer, E., Kowatsch, T., Challenges and Innovations in Digitizing Elderly Care in Switzerland: A Single Case Study, In Proc of the 18th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies – Volume 2: HEALTHINF, ISBN 978-989-758-731-3, ISSN 2184-4305, pp 1077-1082. [PDF]
4. Mekniran, W., Kowatsch, T., EDEN: Towards a Computational Framework to Align Incentives in Healthy Aging, In Proc of the 18th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies – Volume 2: HEALTHINF, ISBN 978-989-758-731-3, ISSN 2184-4305, pp. 1067-1076. [PDF]

Also, we will offer a workshop on The Role of LLMs and Low-/No-Code Platforms for Scaling Up Care for Older Adults by Thure Weimann and Dr. Hannes Schlieter.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

PD Dr. med. Mathias Schlögl, MPH, EMBA HSG, Barmelweid, Switzerland will give a keynote on Delirium and Digital Health Interventions

WORKSHOP CHAIRS

1. Rasita Vinay, Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine (IBME), University of Zurich & School of Medicine, University of St.Gallen, Switzerland
2. Hannes Schlieter, Research Group Digital Health at the Faculty of Economics, TU Dresden, Germany
3. Tobias Kowatsch, Institute for Implementation Science in Health Care, University of Zurich & School of Medicine, University of St.Gallen, and Department of Management, Technology and Economics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

WORKSHOP COMMITTEE

1. Thure Weimann, Digital Health at the Faculty of Economics, TU Dresden, Germany
2. Izolda Sabanovic, Mavie Next GmbH, Vienna, Austria
3. Dr. Esther Brill, University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Bern, Switzerland (t.b.c.)
4. Prof. Dr. med. Stefan Klöppel, University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Bern, Switzerland
5. Dr. Andrea Horn, URPP Dynamics of Healthy Aging, University of Zurich, Switzerland
6. Panita Huynh, School of Medicine, University of St.Gallen, Switzerland
7. Wasu Mekniran, Institute of Technology Management, University of St.Gallen, Switzerland