Case 1: Long-Term Rehabilitation in the Everyday Lives of Patients

How can we redesign, structure, and provide existing digital health content through a platform so that patients are motivated to actively use it and integrate it into their daily lives over the long term?

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide (WHO, 2025a). A significant proportion of the morbidity and mortality caused by NCDs, however, is considered preventable or can be positively influenced through effective preventive and therapeutic measures (WHO, 2025b). To reduce disease consequences, minimize functional limitations, and sustainably promote health-related behavior changes, strategies for prevention, rehabilitation, and long-term disease management play an important role (WHO, 2017).

Patient education and the promotion of self-management are central components of the rehabilitation of patients with chronic diseases. Although a large amount of health information and educational content is already available, patients often report being confronted with an overwhelming amount of information and having difficulty identifying content relevant to their individual situation. This perceived overload is also reflected in practice, as healthcare professionals report low willingness among patients to actively and sustainably use the available resources.

Against this background, a web platform was developed to provide structured access to existing, clinically relevant, and evidence-based content on managing disease, symptoms, therapy, risk factors, and prevention. The platform allows for the use of various digital formats, such as videos, audio files, images, and PDFs, or references to external websites and applications. The goal of the project is to design content that is understandable, relevant, and usable for patients in the long term, thereby improving their individual health self-management and quality of life.

Prof. Dr. med. Matthias Willhelm, Chief Physician and Medical Director, Center for Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine, Inselspital Bern

Prof. Dr. Prisca Eser, Head of Quality Management and Research, Center for Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine, Inselspital Bern

Franziska Gurschler, PhD Candidate, Center for Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine, Inselspital Bern

Noora Angelva, PhD Candidate, Center for Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine, Inselspital Bern

Case 2: Self-Care Services for People with Cancer

How can we design formats for a website-based information and self-care offer for people with cancer so that reliable content on integrative oncology and low-risk self-care techniques is conveyed in a way that is understandable, trustworthy, motivating, and relevant to everyday life?

The quality of life of people with cancer is often affected by therapies and their side effects. Many want to actively contribute to improving their situation. For this, they need reliable, understandable, and evidence-based health information on possible supportive interventions, as well as their effectiveness and safety. Practical instructions for self-care techniques can also provide valuable support in everyday life with the disease. A key advantage of these mostly low-risk interventions is that affected individuals can learn and apply them independently.

In this project, we are collaborating with the Comprehensive Cancer Center Zurich to develop a digital offer in the form of a website. In addition to self-care techniques, it will provide important information on integrative oncology. The content is created in an interdisciplinary manner and in close coordination with stakeholders.

The goal of the project is to develop appropriate formats and presentation methods to convey the content in a way that is tailored to the target audience, understandable, and innovative.

Prof. Dr. med. Claudia M. Witt, Chair of Complementary and Integrative Digital Health, University of Zurich

Dr. sc. ETH Anita Thomae, Head of Education for Complementary and Integrative Digital Health, University of Zurich

References:

World Health Organization (WHO). Noncommunicable diseases. 2025a. [cited 2 February 2026]. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/noncommunicable-diseases

World Health Organization (WHO). New data: Every year noncommunicable diseases cause 1.8 million avoidable deaths and cost USD 514 billion, according to a new WHO/Europe report. 2025b. [cited 2 February 2026]. Available from: https://www.who.int/europe/de/news/item/27-06-2025-new-data--noncommunicable-diseases-cause-1-8-million-avoidable-deaths-and-cost-us-514-billion-USD-every-year--reveals-new-who-europe-report

World Health Organization (WHO). Rehabilitation 2030: A call for action [Internet]. 2017 [cited 2 February 2026]. Available from: https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/rehabilitation-2030-a-call-for-action