News

Sebastian Merkel is involved as a tandem partner in the Fellowship program of the College for Social Sciences and Humanities, collaborating with the senior fellows on interdisciplinary research projects at the University Alliance Ruhr, read more here.

Sebastian Merkel has been appointed to the program committee for the 24th German Congress for Health Services Research, which will take place from 22-24 September 2025 in Hamburg. The congress has the heading “Future competence for a resilient healthcare system”.

Read the press release on the topic "What do care staff think about the use of smart speakers? Alexa meets retirement home" here.

Listen to the episode "Daten und Digitalisierung" of the podcast series "Was ist Urban Health?" here.

Projects

New project "Therapeutic Encounters with AI - TEwAI", read more here.

The results report of the project "Healthcare Start-up Ökosystem NRW 2021" has now been published. Read the report here.

Read more about the project „Enhancing the Adoption of Mobile Health by Persons with Mental Health Problems“ here.

Publications

Merkel, Sebastian & Schorr, Sabrina 2025: “Identification of Use Cases, Target Groups, and Motivations Around Adopting Smart Speakers for Health Care and Social Care Settings: Scoping Review” read here.

Schorrr, Sabrina, 2024: "Alexa, schalte das Licht an!", read here or here.

Schorr, Sabrina; Merkel, Sebastian 2024: "Smart Speakers in Geriatric Care: Success Factors for Successful Implementation" read here.

Schorr, Sabrina; Klammer, Ute; Merkel, Sebastian 2024: "Attitudes of geriatric nursing staff towards digitalization in inpatient care using the example of 'smart speakers'“ read here.

Imeri, Aylin; Schorr, Sabrina; Merkel, Sebastian 2024:" Digital health applications and health literacy: an explorative analysis" read here.

Lauer, Romy; Merkel, Sebastian; Bosompem, Jennifer; Langer, Henrike; Naeve, Peter; Herten, Benjamin et al. 2024: "(Data-) Cooperatives in health and social care: a scoping review." read here.

Langer, Henrike & Merkel, Sebastian 2023: "Co-Designing a Conversational Agent in Health and Social Care – Perspectives of Professional Care Staff and Older Adults" read here.

Kucharski, Alexander & Merkel, Sebastian 2023: "Domestication of Smart Speakers by Older Users" read here.

Upcoming lectures

23.01.2025, 17:30-17:45:Sebastian Merkel, Keynote Speech: “Digital Health Startups in North Rhine-Westphalia. Insights from DigiHealthStart.NRW” at the TechTour AI for Health 2025, Bochum.