Junior or Postdoctoral Researcher: Digital Decision Support Health-App Recommendations

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Health apps and other person-centered digital health technologies have the potential to improve healthcare and public health. Yet, their benefits are not distributed equally. People who use health apps tend to be younger, more highly educated, more affluent, and more digitally literate. At the same time, healthcare professionals may be more likely to recommend apps to people with a higher socioeconomic position.

This is a concern because people with lower health literacy often depend strongly on professional guidance when making decisions about digital health technologies. Many healthcare professionals, however, report that they lack the knowledge, confidence, or practical tools to determine whether a health app is appropriate for a particular individual. This may reinforce existing inequalities in access to safe, effective, and suitable digital health support.

You will contribute to the development and evaluation of a digital decision-support tool that enables healthcare professionals to assess, within the time constraints of a consultation, whether a labelled health app is suitable for an individual patient or user. The tool will be developed in close collaboration with European partners who contribute complementary expertise in health equity and public health, healthcare-professional competences, and patient perspectives.

Tasks:

• Co‑develop and conduct empirical research to evaluate the decision-support tool (in terms of feasibility, usability, acceptability, and potential value in clinical practice) as described in the vacancy text in collaboration with the project supervisors and members of the broader consortium.
• Analyse and translate research findings into recommendations for implementation, healthcare‑professional training, and the further development of the tool
• Collaborating and communicating with interdisciplinary consortium partners and disseminating findings through scientific publications, project deliverables, and practice‑oriented outputs, in line with open‑science principles.
• present your work at (inter) national conferences;

The ideal candidate has strong quantitative and qualitative research skills and an interest in digital health, (digital) health literacy, and equity. Experience with user‑centred design is an advantage. The candidate should be able to work independently while collaborating effectively in an international, interdisciplinary consortium, and should have excellent English communication skills and a strong commitment to open science. Candidates who hold either a (research) master’s or PhD degree may apply.

The position concerns temporary assignment of 19 hours per week for a maximum term of one year starting January 1st 2027 as part of or in addition to your current employment contract. The assignment may be combined with another postdoctoral project or with teaching duties (current position as Researcher or Teacher). In consultation with the project team, it may also be possible to complete the project in a shorter timeframe by working more hours per week.

The project will be supervised by Dr. Christin Scholz and Dr. Annemiek Linn. You will be part of the program group Persuasive Communication the Amsterdam Center for Health Communication/ACHC, and the greater Label2

Scale consortium.

Health apps and other person-centered digital health technologies have the potential to improve healthcare and public health. Yet, their benefits are not distributed equally. People who use health apps tend to be younger, more highly educated, more affluent, and more digitally literate. At the same time, healthcare professionals may be more likely to recommend apps to people with a higher…