EDEN: Emerging Business Models for Digital Healthy Longevity

The EDEN project focuses on developing digital health solutions that are ‘scalable by design.’ Identify evidence-implementation gaps and analyze business model strategies that create cost-effective, high-impact prevention solutions, particularly for preventing type 2 diabetes.

Objectives

Design scalable digital health solutions to prevent Type-2 Diabetes

Identify stakeholder needs through value proposition patterns in the Healthy Longevity landscape and learn about collaborations that facilitate disease prevention (Study 1). Examine real-world implementation challenges in preventive care from practitioners’ perspectives (Study 2). Analyze how digital health disrupts traditional care and incentivizes incumbents to address unmet needs in T2D prevention (Study 3). Lastly, we evaluate the business model framework’s performance with real-world data to benchmark preventive measures and ensure long-term success, focusing on Switzerland, Austria, and Germany (Study 4).

Learn more…
About our computational framework >> eden.ethz.ch <<
About our Swiss implementation project >> prevention.ch <<
About our social longevity survey >> helo-nus.com <<

Research questions

RQ1: Which collaborations address the key challenges in advancing healthy longevity?

RQ2: How do digital health technologies redefine traditional roles and facilitate disease prevention?

RQ3: What are the key components of a scalable business model for preventing chronic diseases with digital biomarkers?

Our methods

Adopting a mixed-methods approach, we integrate primary data collection—through surveys, focus group discussions, and interviews—with secondary data from scientific literature and financial databases.

The core analytical techniques employed encompass theoretical deduction and advanced text analysis methodologies, including unsupervised cluster analysis, natural language processing (NLP) models such as topic modeling, and network analysis. Ultimately, our research evaluates business models with respect to operational and financial performance.

From insight to impact.

Evidence-based design to scale digital health solutions, promoting successful disease prevention.

This research provides practitioners with the tools to capitalize on emerging opportunities in digital health technologies.

Identify stakeholders to collaborate on fulfilling the needs and facilitating adoption and engagement (Study 1).
Conceptualize implementation strategies by addressing operational barriers and stakeholder incentives to deploy digital health solutions (Study 2&3).
Benchmark business models against real-world performance to support decision-making in venture analysis (Study 4).

Publications

Incentive Systems for Diabetes Prevention with Digital Health, Mekniran W, Jovanova M & Kowatsch T (2024), Poster to be presented at Annual Meeting of the Swiss Society of Endocrinology and Diabetology (SSED) on November 14-15, 2024.
The Longevity Landscape: Value Creation for Healthy Aging, Mekniran W, Giger O, Fleisch E, Kowatsch T, Jovanova M (2024), preprint, 10.1101/2024.05.28.24308017. [PDF]
Collaboration and Innovation Patterns in Diabetes Ecosystems, Giger, O.F., Pfitzer, E., Mekniran, W., Gebhardt, H., Fleisch, E., Jovanova, M., Kowatsch, T., (2024), preprint, 10.1101/2024.04.25.24306351. [PDF]
Reimagining Preventive Care and Digital Health: A Paradigm Shift in a Health Insurance’s Role, Mekniran W, Kramer J-N and Kowatsch T (2024), 10.5220/0012400300003657. [PDF]
Scalable Business Models in Digital Healthy Longevity: Lessons from Top-Funded Digital Health Companies in 2022, Mekniran W, Kowatsch T (2023), 10.5220/0011778400003414. [PDF]

Teaching and theses

Lecture on Emerging Business Models in Digital Health – Prof. Dr. Tobias Kowatsch
Prevention in Health Care: Case studies to derive success factors – Winkelmann S.
Business Model Innovation in Digital Healthcare: A systematic literature review – Stalder V.
Business Model Innovation in Preventive Care: A systematic literature review – Diethelm W.
Analysis of Business Model Robustness of Swiss Digital Health Ventures – Jordi S.
Healthcare Ecosystems for Preventive Care: Role of Swiss health insurance – Cathomas C.
Revenue Model Analysis of Digital Healthy Longevity Companies – Klebinger K.

Looking for a thesis?

Population Study on Heatlhy Longevity: Assessing Swiss perceptions of healthy longevity medicine, willingness to pay for preventive care, and the adoption of digital health technologies among healthcare professionals. More about our social longevity survey >> helo-nus.com <<

Feel free to apply by sending your CV and research proposal to wmekniran@ethz.ch

In Brief

Our team is developing a business model framework that makes disease prevention measurable, actionable, and accountable.

Runtime

Nov 2022 – Feb 2026

Research Team

Wasu Mekniran MSc MBA
Mia Jovanova PhD
Prof. Dr. Elgar Fleisch
Prof. Dr. Tobias Kowatsch

Contributing Members
Michel Josi
Janine Kühne
Magdalena Kubiak
Keno Klebinger
Céline Cathomas
Severin Jordi
Wilma Diethelm
Victoire Stalder
Sandra Winkelmann