Tackling the scaling-up problem of digital health applications

The purpose of this editorial is to provide guidance for the readers concerning the broad realm of approaches towards successful implementation of digital health applications into the health care system. Recent developments due to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic are used as a current angle.

All contributions within the special issue were scanned for their most decisive contribution to the special issue and the field of implementation science, with a focus on digital health. Micro, meso, and macro layers of implementation processes, as well as the technological perspective itself, are used as broad categories for sorting the contributions and structuring the special issue.

The ten contributions to this special issue cover micro (n = 1), technology (n = 1), meso (n = 4) and macro (n = 2) perspectives on the implementation process of digital health applications. Two further contributions also tackle the issue from a wider perspective when aiming to structure telemedicine application types and barriers encountered when implementing digital health.

Considering the wide array of research fields represented in this special issue, an emphasis is put on the importance of interdisciplinary work required for tackling the scale-up problem of digital health. As such, the special issue can assist in leveraging the full potential of digital health, not only when dealing with situations as out-of-the-ordinary as the current pandemic but also well beyond that, for example when dealing with the upcoming challenges of demographic change.