Health of tomorrow: digital prevention infrastructure for PKV

PKV Logo

A digital infrastructure that brings together all digital services related to setting-based
prevention

gesundheit-gestalten.de

IBM iX developed the digital infrastructure „Gesundheit gestalten“ for the Association of Private Health Insurers (PKV) – a central platform that brings together prevention projects and makes services such as digital consultations, training, and networking easily accessible. 

Digital gap in the field of prevention 

Prevention is a key to promoting the health of the population in the long term and reducing healthcare costs by preventing diseases at an early stage or positively influencing their course. In particular, setting prevention, which is targeted in living environments such as schools, daycare centres, clubs or nursing homes, makes it possible to integrate health-promoting measures directly into people’s everyday lives and thus have a lasting effect. However, the offers of setting prevention are still hardly networked with each other, not very cooperative and can be used digitally. Preventive health services are on the rise, but are often developed and operated separately from each other. The result: inefficient structures, redundant IT solutions and high operating costs. This not only makes cooperation between providers more difficult, but also access to offers for users who can hardly find their way through the jungle of different technologies and applications. 

Pioneering infrastructure for a networked service landscape

The idea was born: With the digital infrastructure „Gesundheit gestalten”, a central point of contact for all setting prevention projects has been created for the first time, presenting private health insurance offers on the website gesundheit-gestalten.de centrally and in a low-threshold manner. The website provides an overview of the available services at each location and how to access them. In addition to the public website, where providers can present their setting prevention services and make them accessible to interested institutions, the new offer also includes a closed area with multifunctional rooms for advice, learning and projects. This is where internal correspondence between providers and institutions or users takes place. Extensive and customer-oriented support structures enable providers to establish their offers on the infrastructure as independently and resource-efficiently as possible.  

This includes a competence center with online courses, videos, checklists and documentations, accompanied group formats for exchanging ideas, onboarding and consulting formats as well as a customer service that offers quick and competent answers and solutions to questions or problems.  The infrastructure is the first of its kind to provide a space in which consultations, training, moderation, project management and networking in the field of prevention and health promotion can be implemented easily and efficiently on a supra-regional basis.

"We want prevention to spread throughout Germany in living environments – quickly and easily accessible. Our solution: a digital infrastructure that bundles prevention and health promotion services in one place."
Martin Reemts
Health Communication Officer at PKV Association
User-centered development

In order to implement the vision of private health insurance, IBM iX, as an expert in digital health solutions, has put together an interdisciplinary team consisting of IT specialists, UX/UI designers and experts in the field of health prevention. Their task: to create a digital solution that is technically robust, user-friendly and future-proof and is continuously monitored and supported – all under the premise of agile and iterative development. 

IBM iX was responsible for proxy product ownership, agile coaching, solution and experience design as well as technical implementation. In addition, IBM iX was responsible for hosting and operating the digital infrastructure. The project is being scientifically monitored by the August Wilhelm Scheer Institute as well as the University for Continuing Education Krems and the Evaluation Institute Univation. 

Needs assessment with the help of agile methods

In order to first determine the needs, IBM iX conducted numerous workshops and design thinking sessions with private health insurance stakeholders and future users. The needs of the various target groupsfrom prevention providers to course instructors and end userswere comprehensively analyzed. These insights were directly incorporated into the development of the infrastructure to ensure that it is both functional and intuitive to use.

Open Source technologies for flexible digital spaces

An important technical component was the choice of the underlying systems. IBM iX relied on proven open source technologies such as Drupal as the content management system (CMS) and Moodle as the learning management system (LMS). These systems made it possible to develop an infrastructure that both provides publicly available information and provides closed digital spaces where providers and users can collaborate and provide training and consultations. 

Focus on user experience

In addition to the technical implementation, there was a strong focus on experience design. IBM iX developed a clear and user-friendly information architecture as well as a navigation concept that takes into account the different needs of the target groups. The structure of the infrastructure allows providers to seamlessly integrate their prevention programs and manage them in a user-friendly way. The possibility of the providers customising the project rooms is also an essential part of the design strategy in order to enable maximum flexibility and identification with their own offers. 

A flexible and scalable solution

Instead of separate IT systems for each program, there is now a uniform infrastructure that is both cost-efficient and scalable. Another feature is its flexibility: it has been developed in such a way that future extensions and adjustments are possible without any problems. In this way, the infrastructure can be adapted to changing requirements in the coming years by simply integrating new programs. Further functionalities are already being planned. 

The course for the future of prevention has been set

“Gesundheit gestalten“ marks an important step in the digitization of health prevention and ensures that prevention will be implemented efficiently, cooperatively and user-friendly in various living environments in the future. Several providers are already using the infrastructure to digitally market and implement their prevention programs. Whether it’s offers for the development of a prevention strategy in schools or prevention offers for non-violent communication in daycare centers – the range is growing steadily.  

Ready for the next level of
digital transformation?

Discover more campaigns,
platforms and experiences