Be Aware! Indications for Intercultural Awareness for Digital Health Innovations and Innovation Capability

Cultural influences on single Digital Health Innovation (DHI) processes or on a society's capability to promote DHI development and implementation remain difficult to describe and to manage on different levels of responsibility. Using Hofstede's Dimensions of National Culture, we investigated the influence of each dimension on DHI to support awareness and to derive valuable indications for both practice and research. An expert study with 23 participants representing 13 different European countries explored the influence of a nation's characteristic on how the DHI domain is supported or slowed down. The results describe indications for all six dimensions of Hofstede, but "Uncertainty Avoidance" and "Indulgence" are highlighted as the interviewees could assess their influence on DHI confidently. Combined with cultural aspects that do not rely on nationalities, our contribution can improve scientific and practice-oriented initiatives especially in context of international collaborations or of DHI for multi-national usage scenarios.