Tutorial mission and objectives
This half-day tutorial aims to explore the integration of interdisciplinary approaches within Public Health
education to enhance the implementation of digital skills in Public Health curricula. Specifically, the tutorial will address the following objectives:
- Identification of benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary education in Public Health programs.
- Sharing and examining case studies and best practices in interdisciplinary learning focused on how digital literacy and skill acquisition can be embedded in Public Health curricula.
- co-design strategies and teaching activities that foster interdisciplinary learning environments at the program level (curriculum design) and the classroom level (course design and teaching methods).
Intended audience
This tutorial is designed for participants from Public Health, digital technologies, and others from the
following roles:
- Public Health Educators and curriculum designers: Individuals responsible for integrating Digital Health competencies into Public Health training programs.
- Technology and data scientists: Professionals developing or evaluating digital tools that can be implemented in Public Health education.
- Researchers, policymakers, and NGOs: Stakeholders interested in shaping future Public Health workforce capacity while safeguarding effectiveness and equitability of digital skill-building.
Expected outcomes
Overall, this tutorial will create a dynamic environment for sharing insights, exchanging best practices, and developing new strategies to help shape the future of Digital Public Health education. By leveraging
interdisciplinary perspectives, attendees will leave with concrete ideas and connections to further embed
digital competencies within their institutions and curricula.
Following the tutorial, we plan to use the discussion points to develop a position paper to be published in a leading open-access journal to make the results available to a broader audience while also stressing the
necessity of the need for interdisciplinary education in Digital Public Health.
Format and schedule
| Opening (15 min) | Overview of tutorial objectives, alignment with conference themes, and brief participant introductions and expectations via a “speed dating” method. |
| Introduction to Interdisciplinary Education (30 min) | Presentation highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of public health and digital public health by Laura Maaß, with an illustrative example provided by Rok Hrzic. |
| World Café Small Group Discussions (45 min) | Small group discussions (rotating every 15 minutes) allowing participants to share experiences and challenges in interdisciplinary education, guided by the program committee. Tables will cover beneficial topics, barriers, and educational methods in Digital Public Health. |
| Plenary Discussion (30 min) | Participants reflect collectively on insights from the World Café, deepen understanding of interdisciplinary education challenges, and propose potential solutions. |
| Coffee Break (30 min) | Networking and informal discussion break. |
| Co-design Session: Developing Interdisciplinary Education (110 min) | Practical session using Design Thinking, comprising: – Introduction to Design Thinking process (10 min) – Empathising: small groups form user personas and identify challenges (20 min) – Defining the problem clearly (20 min) – Ideating creative solutions (20 min) – Prototyping visual or tangible curriculum/activity frameworks (20 min) – Presentations and peer feedback (20 min) |
Social media contacts
| Platform | Rok Hrzic | Laura Maaß | Kirsten Duggan |
|---|---|---|---|
| – | – | – | |
| – | – | – | |
| X | – | – | – |
| https://www.linkedin.com /in/rokhrzic/ | https://www.linkedin.com /in/dr-laura- maa%C3%9F-46a962206 Dr Laura Maaß https://www.linkedin.com /school/university-of- bremen/posts/?feedView= all Universität Bremen https://www.linkedin.com /company/early-career- researcher-academy- bremen Early Career Researcher Academy Bremen | https://www.linkedin.com /in/kirsten-duggan- b39a8122b/ | |
| BlueSky | @laura-goes- diph.bsky.social |
SPEAKERS
Rok Hrzic
Dr Rok Hrzic is an assistant professor at Maastricht University’s Department of International Health. He holds degrees in Medicine, Epidemiology, and Governance and Leadership in European Public Health. His research examines geographic mortality disparities across Europe, focusing on avoidable mortality and real-world data use in health policy. He teaches comparative health research and EU health policy courses. Dr Hrzic is the founding chair of the Digital Public Health task force at ASPHER, leading efforts to integrate digital competencies, including health data management and advanced analysis methods, into public health curricula.
Laura Maaß
Dr Laura Maaß is a postdoc at Leibniz ScienceCampus Digital Public Health Bremen, Germany. She completed her PhD on measuring digital public health maturity of health systems at the University of Bremen (2024). Her background includes degrees in Public Health and Health Economics (BSc) and Health Care Research (MSc). She is research coordinator for the Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence committee of the European Public Health Association (EUPHA), speaker of the German Public Health Association’s Digital Public Health section, and member of ASPHER’s Digital Public Health taskforce.
She is also co-editing a Springer Nature handbook on interdisciplinary digital public health.
Kirsten Duggan
Kirsten Duggan is a researcher at the Gesundheitsamt Frankfurt am Main (public health authority), Germany. Holding a degree in Health Sciences from University of Osnabrück (Germany) and Master of
Public Health (University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK) the focus of her work is in climate change and health, particularly heat protection. With knowledge transfer being another focal point, she is not only part of the Climate and Health Working Group within ASPHER (Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region) but also works with the Digital Public Health taskforce and the Core Curriculum for
Public Health development group.