ADOPTION OF DIGITAL VACCINATION SERVICES FROM A LITERALLY PROFESSIONAL VIEW: A COMMENTARY ON “IT IS THE CLICK FLOW, NOT THE VALUE” FROM A HEALTH CARE WORKERS AND AGILITY PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The interplay of innovation and health care workers (HCWs) focusing on vaccination were key in mastering the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to serious health, social and economic problems worldwide (Holzmann-Littig et al., 2022). Apart from optimizing traditional approaches to contain the pandemic outbreak, such as hygiene rules, testing regime, contact tracing, quarantine (Saw et al., 2021), new mRNA-vaccines and innovative digital technologies such as vaccination platforms were introduced (Kis et al., 2021). In this context, the study “Adoption of Digital Vaccination Services: It Is the Click Flow, Not the Value—An Empirical Analysis of the Vaccination Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany” (Alscher et al., 2023) focused on the digital management of vaccination processes. Existing adoption theories and acceptance models from consumer market research were adapted to the public health sector and formed into a digital platform framework for policy makers and pandemic managers to manage public health services, such as vaccination offerings. Based on a survey in Germany’s federal state with the highest vaccination rate, results showed that (1) the usability barrier is the most important barrier which harms adoption, whereas the most emphasized value barrier does not play a dominant role in contrast to consumer market research. By analyzing the three digital platform configuration areas Communication, Data Management, Personalization, (2) Personalization stood out as the most important factor for managing the usability barrier by optimizing the best click flow on the digital health platform to address the needs, preferences, and situation of the citizens as users.

“Yet, the endgame of the pandemic is not vaccines; it is vaccination” (Dai & Song, 2021, p. 455) and thus, the fast implementation of the vaccination by health care workers (HCWs) are critical premises and antecedents for a successful vaccination adoption  (Scroggins et al., 2023). In this direction, we want to highlight the role of professional HCWs in the adoption of digital vaccination services: First, their own adoption of the vaccination as a role model and their position as first priority vaccination group, and second, their contribution in adapting their service to the new pandemic situation from an agility point of view.