News

Henrike Langer and Sebastian Merkel are guests on the Gender-Path Summer School podcast: “In this episode, Henrike Langer and Prof. Dr. Sebastian Merkel (Chair of Digital Health, Ruhr University Bochum) are guests on the podcast and explain the relevance of digital health for reducing digital, social, and health inequalities. They also provide insights into their project PETRA—an AI-supported educational and therapeutic program for perimenopause, which is funded by the BMFTR. In particular, they emphasize the importance of collecting data on perimenopause from a diverse range of real-life experiences.
Listen to the episode here: PODSTATUS, Apple Podcast, Spotify

Sebastian Merkel is co-organizing the symposium “Therapeutic Encounters with Chatbots: The Social and Ethical Implications of Artificial Therapeutic Agents”, which will take place on 01.07.2025. Read more here.

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.

Projects

On September 1, 2026, the new project “AI_Bio – AI-Supported Digital Biographical Work to Support Older Family Caregivers” was launched. It is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR) as part of the “WIR! – Change Through Innovation in the Region” program (duration: September 1, 2026 – August 31, 2028).
The goal of the project is the participatory further development of the AI-supported assistance system Teresa.AI as a platform for digital biographical work in the context of home care, in order to improve the quality of life for people in need of care and to relieve the burden on (older) family caregivers.
Find more information here!

On 1 July 2026, the new project "RevierMed.KI – Aufbau eines regionalen Start-Up-Innovationsökosystems für KI-basierte Gesundheitsanwendungen im Rheinischen Revier" was launched. The project, currently in its conceptual phase, is funded by the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR).
RevierMed.KI aims to create an innovation ecosystem in the Rhineland mining region that supports start-ups in the development, testing and market launch of AI-based healthcare applications. The focus is on challenges such as access to structured healthcare data, regulatory requirements, the development of test environments and networking with research and healthcare providers.
You can find more details here.

On April 1, 2026, the new teaching and research project “ELSI-Lab – HealthTech in Social Science (ELTIS)” will launch. The project is funded by the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education (Stiftung Innovative Hochschullehre) through the Freiraum 2026 program.
In this project, we are developing a new teaching format that supports students in applying their knowledge of ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) as well as participatory technology design in practice. By engaging with startups in the e-health sector, students will participate in real-world development processes and gain insights into innovation and entrepreneurship contexts.
ELTIS aims to integrate social science perspectives more deeply into the development of digital health technologies while simultaneously fostering students’ capacity for innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. The project is being implemented in collaboration with partners from the NRW startup ecosystem.
We are very excited about the project’s launch and look forward to further developing the teaching format in the coming semesters.
Project manager: Rebecca Klocke, M.A.

New project "Neues Projekt "PETRA - AI-gestützte edukative Therapiebegleitung für die Perimenopause", read more here.

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

Publications

Marent, Ben; Merkel, Sebastian; Petersen, Alan; Tucker, Ian 2026: "Therapeutic Encounters with Chatbots: Towards a Sociological Approach to Human-Machine Communication" read here.

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.

Presentations

Future

01.10.2026, Imeri, A., Ahle, U., Bandorski, T., Freytag, A., Kunde, K., Merkel, S., Witt, C., & Vollmar, H. C., "Smart Health in Etteln (SHE) - eine Projektvorstellung" [Werkstattbericht], Kongress Gesundheit gestalten. Gemeinsamer Jahreskongress der Fachgesellschaften DEGAM | DGSMP | DGMS | EbM-Netzwerk. Göttingen.

30.09.2026, 15:00-15:30h, Merkel, S., Digitale Gesundheitsanwendungen (DiGA) – Einführung und Erfahrungen aus Deutschland, 9. EUFEP Kongress, Universitäöt der Weiterbildung Krems, Krems an der Donau, Österreich

28.09.-02.10.2026, Schorr, S. "Digitale Gesundheitskompetenz als Feld der Zukunftsschließung: Eine wissensoziologische Analyse der methodologischen und wissenspolitischen Grenzen aktueller Forschungsprogramme" 43. Kongress der Detuschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie "Zukünfte der Gesellschaft", Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

25.09.2026, Langer, H., Best, C., Schmidt, L., Merkel S. „Zwischen Versorgungslücke und Querschnittsaufgabe: Perspektiven von Gynäkolog:innen als Grundlage für eine digitale Unterstützung in der Perimenopause“, 25. Deutscher Kongress für Versorgungsforschung 2026, Uniklinik Köln

23.-25.09.2026, Schorr, S. "Wissenschaftliche Publikationen zu digitaler Gesundheitskompetenz und ihre Auswirkungen auf die gesundheitlichen Ungleichheiten", 25. Deutscher Kongress für Versorgungsforschung 2026, Uniklinik Köln.

15.09.2026, 13:00-15:00h, Merkel, S., Einführung in Digital Health: Gundlagen, Chancen und Herausforderungen, Summer School Gender-Path, Universität Witten/Herdecke

Past

11.06.2026, Schorr, S., Jasinski, J., Merkel, S. "Digitalisierung und soziale Disparitäten in der Gesundheit" Dreiländerkongress für Gesundheits- und Medizinsoziologie 2026, Zurich University of Applied Sciences.

15.05.2026 Merkel, S., Marent, B. "Sociotechnical Imaginaries of chatbot designers in AI-Driven mental healthcare", Workshop "Digital Health, AI, and the Transformaion of Care", European Sociological Association, Online.

December 9, 2025, Merkel, S. “How Sociotechnical Imaginaries Shape Mental Health Chatbots: Findings from Interviews with Designers” University of Łódź (Poland).

December 2, 2025, Merkel, S. “Digitalisierung und Technik in Sozialimmobilien” soleo* Congress, Kevelaer.

November 20, 2025, Merkle, S. “(Un-)intendierte Folgen technischer Innovationen im Gesundheitssektor” 17th International Conference of the Austrian Society for Care & Case Management (ÖGCC), Linz (Austria).

November 21, 2025, Merkel, S. “AR/VR in Healthcare: Sociotechnical Imaginaries & Implementation” VR Summit, Bochum.

September 25, 2025, Merkel, S. “Pioneering Progress Innovations in Digital Health” Great Manchester Germany Summit, Manchester (UK).

September 23, 2025, Langer, H., Tietz, L. “Verstehen verbindet: Übersetzungstechnologien in der modernen Gesundheitsversorgung” 24th German Congress for Health Services Research 2025, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE).

September 22, 2025. Schorr, S., Jasinski, J., Merkel, S. “Digitale Gesundheitskompetenz: Reproduktions- und Verstätigungsmuster bei Theorie und Messinstrumenten in wissenschaftlichen Publikationen – Ein Meta-Review” 24th German Congress for Health Services Research 2025, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE).

July 1, 2025, Merkel, S. “Sociotechnical imaginaries held by developers of mental health chatbots” Therapeutic Encounters with Chatbots (TEwAI) Symposium, College for Social Science and Humanities, Essen.