Biography
Tobias Kowatsch holds a PhD in Management (University of St.Gallen, 2016), a Master’s in Business Informatics (Saarland University, 2012), a Master’s in Media and Computer Science (Hochschule Furtwangen, 2007), and a Diploma (FH) in Computer Science (Hochschule Furtwangen, 2005). After his successful habilitation in 2021, he was also awarded the degree of a private lecturer with the “venia legendi” in Information Systems with a special focus on Digital Health (University of St.Gallen, 2022).
Since 2013, Dr Kowatsch is the Scientific Director of the Centre for Digital Health Interventions, a joint initiative of the Department of Management, Technology and Economics at ETH Zurich and the Institute of Technology Management at the University of St.Gallen. In this role and in close collaboration with his interdisciplinary team and research partners, Tobias designs digital health interventions (“digital pills”) for the prevention and management of non-communicable diseases at the intersection of information systems research, computer science and behavioural medicine.
In 2014, Dr Kowatsch helped initiate MobileCoach, an open-source software platform for digital biomarker and health intervention research. He still participates in the ongoing development of MobileCoach and applies the platform in various research projects and teaching.
Since 2015, Tobias is also the Scientific Director of the CSS Health Lab, a joint initiative of the Chair of Information Management at ETH Zurich and the Chair of Operations Management at the University of St.Gallen. The CSS Health Lab aims at improving the prevention and management of non-communicable diseases with ubiquitous technology.
In 2017, Dr Kowatsch co-founded the ETH Zurich and University of St.Gallen spin-off Pathmate Technologies which creates and delivers digital health interventions for the management of non-communicable diseases. For example, manoa is a digital health intervention for individuals with hypertension. Since 2017, Tobias is also a Scientific Advisory Board member of Pathmate Technologies.
In August 2018 Tobias was appointed Assistant Professor for Digital Health at the University of St.Gallen.
Since March 2020, Dr Kowatsch is the Lead Principal Investigator (ETH Zurich) of the Mobile Health Intervention Module that is part of the Future Health Technologies Programme (FHT). FHT develops a mobile digital health technology concept to transform healthcare toward a patient-centric model. It is a programme of the Singapore-ETH Centre, established by ETH Zurich and Singapore's National Research Foundation (NRF), as part of NRF’s Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise (CREATE).
From March to July 2021, Dr Kowatsch was appointed Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore.
In August 2022, Dr Kowatsch was appointed Associate Professor for Digital Health Interventions at the Institute for Implementation Science in Health Care, Medical Faculty, University of Zurich. Sincel then, he also joined the board of directors of the School of Medicine at the University of St.Gallen.
Professor Tobias Kowatsch on ORCID
Publications
Selected publications
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Spring, Bonnie; Pellegrini, Christine A.; Pfammatter, Angela F.; Duncan, Jessica M.; Pictor, Alexander; McFadden, H. Gail; Siddique, Juned (2020). Which Components of a Smartphone Walking App Help Users to Reach Personalized Step Goals? Results From an Optimization Trial.
Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 54(7):518–528. -
Kowatsch, Tobias; Schachner, Theresa; Harperink, Samira; Barata, Filipe; Dittler, Ullrich; Xiao, Grace; Stanger, Catherine; von Wangenheim, Florian; Fleisch, Elgar; Oswald, Helmut; Möller, Alexander (2021). Conversational Agents as Mediating Social Actors in Chronic Disease Management Involving Health Care Professionals, Patients, and Family Members: Multisite Single-Arm Feasibility Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(2)
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Breathing as an Input Modality in a Gameful Breathing Training App (Breeze 2): Development and Evaluation Study. JMIR Serious Games, 10(3):e39186.
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Jacobson, Nicholas; Kowatsch, Tobias; Marsch, Lisa, eds. (2022). Digital Therapeutics for Mental Health and Addiction: The State of the Science and Vision for the Future. Elsevier.
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Detecting Receptivity for mHealth Interventions. GetMobile : Mobile Computing and Communications, 27(2):23-28.
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Predicting early user churn in a public digital weight loss intervention. In: CHI 24: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Honolulu, HI, USA, 11 May 2024 - 16 May 2024, Association for Computing Machinery.
Honors
- ISRII Poster Award at the 12th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII) for "LvL UP"
- Silver Award World Media Festivals 2023 in Hamburg for "LvL UP"
- Gold Award World Media Festivals 2023 in Hamburg for "Healthification"
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Fitrockr & Garmin Health EMEA Research Grant Award 2023 for "Vogue"
Affiliations
Latest News CDHI
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Keynote by Nimra Ahmed on What Remains After the Research? CaseCompass, Activism, and the Politics of Design, 4 June 2026
We are pleased to invite you to join this guest lecture, which is part of Cycles of Care, a spring workshop series at the UZH Digital Society Initiative's Health Community: Cycles of Care. "What Remains After the Research? CaseCompass, Activism, and the Politics of Design" [...]
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Keynote by Prof. Park on Human-Centered AI and Digital Coaching for Healthy Longevity: Lessons from Gerontechnology, HRI, and Aging Research, 1 June 2026
📅 Monday, June 1 2026, 2:00 - 3:00 pm CET 📍UZH IfIS: Plattenstrasse 10, 8032 Zürich, 14th floor, Meeting Room "Adliswil" or 💻 Zoom (Please note, the door to the 14th floor is badge access only; please arrive on time to avoid disruption) 🎤 Hosted [...]
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Beyond the Click: Rethinking Engagement in Digital Health
On April 16, CDHI team members Prof. Dr. Marcia Nißen and Alexandre de Montleau traveled to Barcelona for a workshop on Engagement in Digital Health Interventions, as part of the ACM CHI 2026 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Engagement sits at the center of [...]
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Call for Applications: 2nd UMZH Precision Digital Therapeutics Summer School 2026
Join the 2nd UMZH Precision Digital Therapeutics Summer School in Zurich, 17–21 August 2026! 🚀 Work with clinicians, patients, researchers, and innovators to design next-generation Precision Digital Therapeutics (PDTx) powered by AI and digital health technologies. Over five intensive days, interdisciplinary teams will tackle [...]
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Health IT in Practice: Insights from HOCH Health Ostschweiz CIO Michael Stahlberger
Today, we had the pleasure of welcoming Michael Stahlberger, CIO of HOCH Health Ostschweiz, for an inspiring keynote as part of the Health IT lecture organized by Prof. Dr. Tobias Kowatsch within the Joint Medical Master program, a joint initiative of the University of Zurich [...]