Digital Public Health - Workshop
Workshop on Digital Public Health
Workshop on Digital Public Health
Conceptual Architecture, Workforce Preparation, and Systems Transformation
9–10 July 2026
East Campus USI, Sector D, Room D1.13
Via La Santa 1, Lugano
Welcome to the official page for participants of the Digital Public Health Workshop.
The program is available here: Program Digital Public Health Workshop 9-10 July, Lugano
We hope you find this resource helpful and look forward to welcoming you to the workshop.
Description
Digital transformation is reshaping public health systems, data infrastructures, and workforce competencies. However, Digital Public Health (DiPH) remains conceptually fragmented and insufficiently consolidated as a field. This workshop brings together leading experts to clarify the conceptual, operational, and pedagogical foundations of DiPH as a population- and systems-level discipline.
This workshop aims to clarify how digital transformation is reshaping public health at population and systems levels, while articulating the core principles of Digital Public Health (DiPH). It will map existing research, governance, and educational initiatives, and define forward-looking competency frameworks for the workforce. A key focus is the development of pedagogical approaches to support digital transformation in public health education and practice. The workshop adopts a participatory and structured approach, grounded in expert dialogue, shared experiences, and co-production. Activities will include interactive group work, AI-supported exercises, competency design sessions, and collaborative manuscript development.
Rationale and Workshop Objective
Digital Public Health (DipH) is conceptually fragmented as a scholarly and practice-oriented field. Can we find a consensus on the following questions in this workshop:
• What is the essence of DiPH – also vis à vis traditional PH?
• What are foundational DiPH concepts/building blocks?
• What are essential DiPH competences that should be fostered – and how?
In other words, we will reflect on the core DNA of DiPH, which may help to unify the field, create a sense of community, and harmonize teaching approaches.
Workshop Roadmap
1. Identify conceptual and operational building blocks of Digital Public Health.
2. Gain an overview of existing research, governance, and educational initiatives
3. Reflect on opportunities and needs for DiPH as a scholarly field and its role in preparing the public health workforce (including researchers)
4. Develop a proposal for essential concepts and competencies to enable the public health workforce to co-shape the digital transformation
5. Co-produce a structured outline for a high-impact scholarly publication
Expected participants
Emiliano Albanese, Rebecca Amati, Anne-Linda Camerini, Maddalena Fiordelli, Silvia Santini – Università della Svizzera italiana
Viktor von Wyl - University of Zurich
Alessandro Ceschi – Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale
Gayo Diallo – University of Bordeaux
Louise Holly – Digital Transformations for Health Lab
Rok Hrzic – Maastricht University
Onicio Batista Leal Neto – University of Arizona
Anna Odone, Chiara Barbati – Università degli Studi di Pavia
Laura Rosella – University of Toronto
Robert Stewart – King's College London
Hajo Zeeb – University of Bremen & Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology
Organization & Funding
For the organization of this event, Professor Emiliano Albanese, director of the Institute of Public Health (IPH) at USI, and Professor Viktor von Wyl (Professor with Tenure Track for Digital and Mobile Health at the Faculty of Medicine and is part of the Digital Society Initiative (DSI) at University of Zurich) secured an SNSF Scientific Exchange scheme fund (#242804). This funding scheme is aimed at researchers who plan to organize a scientific event in Switzerland, invite colleagues from abroad for a research visit in Switzerland, or visit their colleagues abroad.
