Big data and bonuses

Fitness trackers, smartwatches and health apps are not merely used to measure and increase health performance and self-optimization. An increasing number of people measure their health digitally, and voluntarily share this personal information. In turn, health insurance companies and insurance companies offer pay-as-you-live (PAYL) rates which reward a sensible or preventive lifestyle with a variety of benefits, monetary or otherwise.

Pay-as-you-live rates have remained largely unexplored despite their social relevance and interest. For the first time, the "Big data and bonuses" research project analyzes this practice in an interdisciplinary and application-oriented manner, clarifying the information technology requirements of PAYL as well as the long-term societal consequences (i.e. individual, social, ethical and cultural) of this trend in the context of the digital transformation of the healthcare system.

The aim of the project is to contribute to the comprehensive assessment of PAYL rates. The classification of PAYL is not only carried out from the perspective of the technically feasible (computer science), but also from the perspective of consumer protection and gradual social change (sociology, applied ethics). In addition, both the technological prerequisites for instruments of digital self-measurement, and the ethical, social and health consequences of PAYL will be considered, and their interaction investigated.

The outcome of the project will be a theoretically and empirically based general assessment of PAYL in the field of health policy. Furthermore an empirically informed and ethically reflected systematology will be created which can be used as a basis for public discourse and policy recommendations.