After the summer school, students will be able to …

1. evaluate specific healthcare challenges presented by clinical experts within the Swiss healthcare system to detect opportunities for PDTx,
2. design a PDTx prototype that deals with a defined clinical issue, incorporating feedback from medical professionals, patients, and technical experts,
3. craft an innovative PDTx with PRECIOUS, UMZH’s design and trial service for PDTx, including patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) and ecological momentary assessments (EMAs), and AI tools, supported by lectures and practical advice from experts, and
4. demonstrate a PDTx prototype to a panel of clinical experts, patients, and investors to showcase its potential for business success and societal impact within the healthcare landscape of Switzerland.

Fundamentals of PDTx

• Definition and scope of PDTx
• Differences between traditional Digital Therapeutics (DTx) and PDTx
• Role of PDTx in modern healthcare systems

Design and Development of PDTx Prototypes

• Rapid prototyping techniques for PDTx
• Incorporating clinical input and patient feedback
• Practical sessions using state-of-the-art PDTx tools

GenAI in PDTx

• Applications of GenAI for personalizing interventions
• Practical workshops on leveraging GenAI tools in PDTx development
• Ethical considerations in AI-driven healthcare solutions

Scaling of PDTx

• Strategies for incorporating PDTx into the Swiss healthcare system
• Overcoming barriers and ensuring user engagement
• Developing sustainable business models for PDTx

Commercialization and Societal Impact of PDTx

• Develop sustainable business models for PDTx in healthcare markets
• Evaluate the potential societal benefits and healthcare system impacts of PDTx frameworks
• The alignment of business potential with positive social outcomes in digital health innovation

We are looking for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in public health, care, nursing, medicine, engineering, computer, business, and management science.

Please apply to Prof. Dr. Tobias Kowatsch and Dr. Marcia Nißen with your (1) CV, and (2) a cover letter explaining your motivation to participate in the PDTx Summer School, and (3) references in support of your application (optional), via the following link by Sunday, June 15, 2025: Apply for UMZH PDTx Summer School, Zurich 2025.

Participation in the UMZH PDTx Summer School is by invitation only. There are no registration fees. Due to the intense and team-science nature of the training, the Master Class is limited to 40 participants selected from the pool of applicants. Successful participants will be assigned to interdisciplinary teams who will then work together to design a PDTx for a specific healthcare challenge. Teams will be compiled based on their background and experience. Acceptance of attendance will be communicated by the end of June 2025.

Participants will benefit from:

1. lectures and substantial hands-on experience with PDTx, incl. PDTx software and generative AI tools
2. a social network of like-minded individuals eager to improve health care with PDTx
3. a confirmation of attendance with a detailed overview of the schedule and efforts
4. a set of highly relevant scientific papers on PDTx and the following textbook: Digital Therapeutics for Mental Health and Addiction by Jacobson, Kowatsch & Marsch

The PDTx Master Class is structured according to the five phases of the rigorous and methodology-guided design and evaluation framework for digital health interventions outlined below:

1. Preparation Phase: (a) gathering requirements for a PDTx; (b) developing a first PDTx prototype based on patient-centered and value-sensitive design methods; (c) conducting a feasibility study; (d) determining an optimization criterion based on a market analysis and focus group discussions with relevant stakeholders
2. Optimization Phase: Determining the optimized intervention package with the help of optimization trials (e.g., micro-randomized trials or (fractional) factorial experiments)
3. Evaluation Phase: Determining the effectiveness of a PDTx with randomized controlled trials
4. Implementation Phase: Implementing the PDTx into a healthcare ecosystem with a sustainable reimbursement model
5. Scale Phase: Scaling up PDTx and implementing it in several healthcare ecosystems

For more details, please read:

1. Schlieter, H., Gand, K., Marsch, L. A., Chan, W. S., & Kowatsch, T. (2024). Editorial: Scaling-up health-IT—sustainable digital health implementation and diffusion. Frontiers in Digital Health, 6. 10.3389/fdgth.2024.1296495 
2. Kowatsch, T., Otto, L., Harperink, S., Cotti, A., & Schlieter, H. (2019). A design and evaluation framework for digital health interventions. it – Information Technology, 61(5-6), 253-263. 10.1515/itit-2019-0019
3. Collins, L. M. (2018). Optimization of Behavioral, Biobehavioral, and Biomedical Interventions: The Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST). Springer. 10.1007/978-3-319-72206-1 

6-8 pm Welcome Reception
location t.b.d.

08:30 – 09:00 Welcome Notes

1. Prof. Dr. med. Claudia Witt, Director Digital Society Initiative & Director Institute for Complementary and Integrative Medicine, University Hospital Zürich
2. UMZH Representative
3. Prof Tobias Kowatsch, Professor for Digital Health Interventions, University of Zurich (UZH), University of St.Gallen (HSG), Scientific Director Centre for Digital Health Interventions, UZH, HSG & ETH Zurich

09:00 – 10:00 Keynote on Precision Digital Therapeutics
Prof Tobias Kowatsch

10:00 – 10:30 Break

10:30 – 12:00 Introduction to Group Challenges
Clinical Experts

12:00 – 13:00 Lunch Break

13:00 – 14:30 Workshop: Design of a Conceptual Model
Prof Kowatsch

14:30 – 15:00 Break

15:00 – 17:30 Group Work, Outcome: PDTx Conceptual Model
supported by Prof Kowatsch

08:30 – 09:30 Keynote on Optimization Trials
Dr. Marcia Nißen

09:30 – 10:00 Break

10:00 – 12:00 PDTx Design & Trial Service Workshop Part 1
Prof. Tobias Kowatsch & Alexandre de Montleau

12:00 – 13:00 Lunch Break

13:00 – 14:30 PDTx Design & Trial Service Workshop Part 2
Prof. Tobias Kowatsch

14:30 – 15:00 Break

15:00 – 17:30 Group Work, Outcome: PDTx prototype 1
supported by Prof. Kowatsch

18:00 – 21:00 Social Gathering and Dinner
t.b.d.

08:30 – 09:30 Keynote on the Evaluation of PDTx
Dr. sc. med. Sandra Ulrich

09:30 – 10:00 Break

10:00 – 12:00 GenAI Workshop – Part 1
Prof. Kowatsch & Felix Moser 

12:00 – 13:00 Lunch Break

13:00 – 14:30 Groups get feedback from clinicians on PDTx prototype 1
Prof. Kowatsch

14:30 – 15:00 Break

15:00 – 17:30 Group Work, Outcome: PDTx prototype 2
supported by Prof. Kowatsch

08:30 – 09:30 Reimbursement of Digital Therapeutics in Switzerland
Diana Hardie

09:30 – 10:00 Break

11:00 – 12:00 Regulation of Digital Therapeutics
Dr. Dietmar Schaffarczyk

11:00 – 12:00 Coaching Session: Group Work
Prof. Kowatsch

12:00 – 13:00 Lunch Break

13:00 – 14:30 Coaching Session: Group Work
Prof. Kowatsch

14:30 – 15:00 Break

15:00 – 17:30 Group Work, Outcome: PDTx prototype 3 with GenAI
supported by Prof. Kowatsch

06:30 – 7:00 pm Arrival of participants

07:00 – 7:10 pm Welcome note by the host 
Dr. Marcia Nißen, CDHI Core Director, Digital Women’s Health

07:10 – 8:15 pm Panel Discussion with …

1. 1. Thao Ngyuen, Founder and CEO, EQUAL CARE
   2. Vanessa Kugler, Market Access Manager, EXPLORIS Health AG
   3. Aynsley Bernard, Co-Founder and Head of ML, Sanza.app
   4. Dr. Kai Schulze-Wundling, Co-Founder & Chief Medical Officer, www.frieda.health
   5. Dr. Gian Luca Barbruni, CEO, Dr. Ata Golparvar, CTO, Maren Mauerhofer, CMO, molesense

20:15 – 21:30 Social Exchange and Apéro Riche

08:30 – 09:30 Keynotes on Scaling up DTx
Estelle Pfitzer, MTIP, Basel, Switzerland “Success Factors of Growth-Stage Digital Health Companies”

David Nydegger, Chief Product Officer, Oviva, “Scaling Up a Digital Health Company: Lesson’s Learned from Oviva”

09:30 – 10:00 Break

10:00 – 12:00 Coaching Session: Group Work

12:00 – 13:00 Lunch Break

13:00 – 15:00 Final group presentations

15:00 – 15:30 Break

15:30 – 16:00 Award Ceremony & Closing Remarks

1. BAG (2024) Faktenblatt Vergütung von digitalen Gesundheitsanwendungen im Rahmen der OKP (PDF 11.2024)
2. BAG (2024) Bericht Digitale Gesundheitsanwendungen: Cybersicherheit und Datenschutzvorgaben (PDF 04.12.2024)
3. BAG (2025) Die obligatorische Krankenversicherung (Ratgeber) (PDF 07.03.2025)
4. SNHTA – Swiss Network for Health Technology Assessment, URL, accessed 25 June 2025
5. BAG (2025) Krankenversicherung: Leistungen und Tarife, URL, accessed 11 May 2025
6. Barth, J., Schläpfer, S., Schneider, F., Santhanam, P., Kowatsch, T., Heinz, P., Held, U., Eicher, M., Witt, C. (2025) Mobile health intervention CanRelax reduces distress in people with cancer in a randomized controlled trial, npj Digital Medicine 8, 269, 10.1038/s41746-025-01688-x
7. Bauer, M. S., Damschroder, L., Hagedorn, H., Smith, J., & Kilbourne, A. M. (2015). An introduction to implementation science for the non-specialist BMC Psychol, 3(1), 32. 10.1186/s40359-015-0089-9
8. Bauer, M. S., & Kirchner, J. (2020) Implementation science: What is it and why should I care? Psychiatry Research, 283, 112376. 10.1016/j.psychres.2019.04.025
9. Digital Therapeutics Alliance (2023) DTx Evaluation Toolkit, https://dtxalliance.org/understanding-dtx/dtx-evaluation-toolkit/
10. Heinz M.V., Mackin D.M., Trudeau B., M., Bhattacharya, S., Wang, Y., Banta H. A., Jewett A. D., Salzhauer A. J., Griffin T. Z., & Jacobson N. C. (2025) Randomized Trial of a Generative AI Chatbot for Mental Health Treatment. NEJM AI, 2(4), AIoa2400802. 10.1056/AIoa2400802
11. Jacobson, N., Kowatsch, T., & Marsch, L. (Eds.). (2023). Digital Therapeutics for Mental Health and Addiction: The State of the Science and Vision for the Future (1st ed.). Elsevier, Academic Press. 10.1016/C2020-0-02801-X
12. Kowatsch, T., & Fleisch, E. (2021) Digital Health Interventions. In O. Gassmann & F. Ferrandina (Eds.), Connected Business: Create Value in a Networked Economy (pp. 71-95). Springer International Publishing. 10.1007/978-3-030-76897-3_4
13. Kowatsch, T., Otto, L., Harperink, S., Cotti, A., & Schlieter, H. (2019). A design and evaluation framework for digital health interventions. it – Information Technology, 61(5-6), 253-263. 10.1515/itit-2019-0019
14. Pfitzer, E., Giger, O.F., Kausch, C., Kowatsch, T. (2025) Success Factors and Measures for Scaling Patient-Facing Digital Health Technologies from Leaders Insights, BMC Health Services Research 25(632) 10.1186/s12913-025-12748-z
15. Pfitzer, E., Bitomsky, L., Nißen, M., Kausch, C., Kowatsch, T. (2024) Success factors of growth-stage digital health companies: a systematic literature review, J Med Internet Res 2024;26:e60473 10.2196/60473
16. Wang, C., Lee, C., & Shin, H. (2023). Digital therapeutics from bench to bedside. npj Digital Medicine, 6(1), 38. 10.1038/s41746-023-00777-z