Greeting
Welcome Address on the Conference Theme: Participation and Co-Creation
Under the conference theme Participation and Co-Creation, the German Society for Social Medicine and Prevention warmly invites you to the 2025 Annual Conference. In a time of increasing social, health, and societal challenges, inclusive and participatory approaches are gaining importance to strengthen the right to health self-determination, particularly for vulnerable population groups, and to counteract the development of a fragmented society. The conference will explore how participation and co-creation can be further strengthened as central concepts in social medicine and prevention.
Participation and co-creation are understood as overarching terms that encompass various approaches and methods of modern health maintenance and health development, such as shared decision-making, resource analysis, patient-, user-, and citizen-centered orientation, empowerment, inclusion, and participatory research. Participatory or co-creation approaches serve as guiding principles to ensure the involvement of relevant stakeholders and users in all phases of program development, including design, implementation, and evaluation. Co-creation in health research aims to improve the lives of those who are in the focus of research by enabling them to contribute to the research process and its outcomes.
The theme of “Participation” represents access to opportunities and resources and is crucial for promoting individual health as well as shaping a just society. “Co-Creation,” as active collaboration and partnership among diverse actors, is key to achieving sustainable solutions in healthcare and prevention. Together, we aim to explore how these concepts can be better anchored and implemented in practice.
We warmly invite you to submit contributions on the conference theme Participation and Co-Creation. The focus is on approaches addressing social participation and inclusion, as well as on accessibility of health services, the use of innovative methods such as digital tools or design thinking for program development and the political and societal dimensions of participation in health. Whether research findings, practice-based reports, or creative health projects – we look forward to contributions that overcome barriers, strengthen participatory processes, and create sustainable solutions for health and well-being.

Christiane Stock
(Conference President, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin)

Raimund Geene
(Conference President, Alice Salomon Hochschule, Berlin School of Public Health)

Andreas Seidler
(President of the DGSMP)