While participation has long been used as a “buzzword” in the various fields of health research, there has been a strong development in this field over the last 10 to 15 years. Using the terms “co-determination”, “shared decision making”, “patient and public involvement”, “co-design/creation” or “participatory research”, people are increasingly being involved in research, intervention development and evaluation, or are being empowered as research partners in their own right. Nowadays, a wide range of participation methods exist, but they are often not brought together and are therefore sometimes unknown or their implementation requires a high level of resources. Challenges also exist in the motivation to participate and thus in selective participation, but also in the fact that often only lower levels of participation are achieved (“user as informant” or “targeted consultation”).

Digital forms and methods of participation have been developed and tested for specific fields of health, but have not yet been integrated into a comprehensive approach. Against this background, this project aims to carry out initial conceptual work for the development of a digital participation platform in the field of health, which is to be technically implemented, evaluated and disseminated in a second step.