The case for inclusive co-creation in digital health innovation
Open accessAbstract
The motto “Move fast and break things” has long inspired the behavior of modern entrepreneurs, chararcterized by a race to put products in the hands of consumers as fast as possible, with minimal regard for their legal and ethical ramifications 1 . In their recent study, Landers et al. flip this paradigm on its head, highlighting the importance of a “Sync fast and solve things” mentality within digital health instead 2 . Realizing responsible digital health, they argue, requires embracing co-creation as the default modus operandi for digital health innovation 2 . The question of who should be included amongst these co-creators is the topic of this editorial.
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The collaboration with end users throughout the platform development process likely contributed to users reporting high usefulness and acceptable usability.
“Our collaboration with end users throughout the platform development process [31,33] likely contributed to users reporting high usefulness and acceptable usability, as this co-creation approach has been recognized as essential for successful digital health technology development [36,37].”
From Caregiver experiences of an integrative patient-centered digital health application for pediatric type 1 diabetes care: Findings from a pilot clinical trial (2025) · cites this paper as [37]
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Cites
Grindell, C., Coates, E., Croot, L., & O’Cathain, A. (2022) · BMC Health Services Research · doi:10.1186/s12913-022-08079-y · Cited by 409 · see citing works
The Rise of the Empowered Physician in the Digital Health Era: Viewpoint
Meskó, B., & Győrffy, Z. (2019) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/12490 · Cited by 132 · see citing works
Assessing the Clinical Robustness of Digital Health Startups: Cross-sectional Observational Analysis
Day, S., Shah, V., Kaganoff, S., Powelson, S., & Mathews, S. C. (2022) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/37677 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Sync fast and solve things-best practices for responsible digital health
Landers, C., Blasimme, A., & Vayena, E. (2024) · npj Digital Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41746-024-01105-9 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 4
- [1]Taneja, H. The Era of “Move Fast and Break Things” Is Over (Harvard Business Review, 2019).
- [3]Ronquillo, Y., Meyers, A. & Korvek, S. J. Digital Health (StatPearls, 2023). 29262125
- [8]AMA. Measuring and Addressing Physician Burnout (American Medical Association, 2024). https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/physician-health/measuring-and-addressing-physician-burnout.
- [9]AMA. AMA Digital Health Care 2022 Study Findings (American Medical Association, 2022). https://www.ama-assn.org/about/research/ama-digital-health-care-2022-study-findings.
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An umbrella review on how digital health intervention co-design is conducted and described
Kilfoy, A., Hsu, T. C., Stockton-Powdrell, C., Whelan, P., Chu, C. H., & Jibb, L. (2024) · npj Digital Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41746-024-01385-1 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
Fostering inclusive co-creation in digital health
Blasimme, A., Landers, C., & Vayena, E. (2025) · npj Digital Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41746-025-01724-w · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Litchfield, I. J., Delanerolle, G., Harper, L., & Dunning, S. (2025) · Health Expectations · doi:10.1111/hex.70523 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
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Litchfield, I. J., Delanerolle, G., Juffs, H., Bloxham, S., Dunning, S., & Harper, L. (2025) · Frontiers in Digital Health · doi:10.3389/fdgth.2025.1636469 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Romanelli, M., Vélez‐Grau, C., Rouvere, J., & Porter, S. F. (2025) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/77062 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Kourounis, G., Gilbert, S., Knight, S. R., Leal, A., Scully, J. L., Loupy, A., Martin, D., Preka, E., Primc, N., Seoane, F., et al. (2026) · Transplant International · doi:10.3389/ti.2026.16316 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Amed, S., Pinkney, S., Abdulhussein, F. S., Virani, A., Zachariuk, C., Tamana, S. K., Muralidharan, S., Görges, M., Barrett, B., van Rooij, T., et al. (2025) · PLOS Digital Health · doi:10.1371/journal.pdig.0000861 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Our collaboration with end users throughout the platform development process [31,33] likely contributed to users reporting high usefulness and acceptable usability, as this co-creation approach has been recognized as essential for successful digital health technology development [36,37].”
Moseley, L., Laws, A. S. E., Allen, M. J., Ford, G. A., James, M. A., McCarthy, S., McClelland, G., Park, L. J., Pearn, K., Phillips, D., et al. (2025) · npj Digital Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41746-025-01691-2 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
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Clinician-engaged co-creation enables adoption and impact of digital health innovations
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Le, J., Li, X.-X., & Qin, S.-L. (2026) · Digital Health · doi:10.1177/20552076261494727
Zhang, L., Shi, X., Wang, F., & Liu, J. (2026) · doi:10.2196/preprints.114685
- Authors
- Nickel, G. C., Wang, S., Kwong, J. C. C., & Kvedar, J. C.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Nickel, Grace C.
- Venue
- npj Digital Medicine
- Published
- 2024-09-16
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 251-251
- ISSN
- 2398-6352 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC11405661
- OpenAlex
- W4402582069
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 1
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- npj Digital Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Toronto
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management of Technology and Innovation › Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mental Health and Patient Involvement
- Keywords
- digital health innovation, responsible innovation, stakeholder inclusion, ethics of digital health, digital health regulation
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