Part of the nature of research is that the unexpected happens and the course of a research project is never completely predictable. Nevertheless, the COVID pandemic was unexpected for all partners. Due to the restrictions on visits, the studies planned in the project could only be carried out with a considerable delay, which also had the effect of delaying further work based on the project. The A2I partners are therefore delighted that our funding organisation, the BMBF, has approved a 6-month extension to the project. This will allow us to finalise the planned research work.

Kiel University is pleased to announce the publication of the research paper on innovation acceptance of frontline employees entitled “Employee acceptance of disruptive service innovations at the frontline: The role of collective sensemaking processes”. The study by Christopher Garrelfs, Carsten Schultz and Marie Lüngen was conducted as part of the associated BMBF project Audio-PSS. The study is based on the example of hearing acoustics. It analyses the effects of the degree of innovation and competitive threats from other market participants on the acceptance of radical service innovations among service employees. Incremental innovations, such as digital hearing aid support, were compared with radical innovations, such as AI-based hearing aid fitting. The results show that service employees have a preference for incremental innovations and that competitive threats do not cause any significant differences in innovation acceptance. The exchange of information within the working group and the entrepreneurial orientation of the organisation play a moderating role. The findings of the study contribute to a better understanding of the acceptance of service innovations and offer valuable implications for practice and research.

The study is freely available (Open Access) and can be found at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/caim.12563.

As part of the project, a new research paper entitled “Exploring the Role of Professional Identity in the Implementation of Clinical Decision Support Systems-A Narrative Review ” was recently published in the journal Implementation Science. The study provides an in-depth look at the complex interplay between clinical decision support systems (CDSS) and the professional identity of healthcare professionals.

Through a systematic literature review covering studies from 2010 to 2023, critical insights were gained into how CDSS can be perceived by healthcare professionals as either a threat or a tool to enhance their own professional role.

Key findings of the study include:

• The perception of CDSS as a threat to professional identity has a significant impact on the success of their implementation, particularly in relation to perceptions of professional control, autonomy and relationships with patients.
• Factors such as technology integration, organizational dynamics, and individual attitudes toward CDSS play a critical role in shaping these perceptions.
• Health professionals’ reactions to CDSS vary from perceived threats to their expertise and autonomy to opportunities to expand their role within clinical workflows.

The authors emphasize the need to consider the impact on professional identity at all stages of CDSS implementation. It is considered crucial that health managers recognize and address potential threats to professional identity in order to promote a more inclusive and effective integration of CDSS into health practice. Furthermore, a participatory approach to the design and implementation of CDSS is advocated, emphasizing the direct involvement of health professionals to mitigate threat perceptions and increase uptake of the system.

The study is freely available (open access).

The first results of the A2I project in the field of auditory attention decoding were presented by Lisa Straetmans-Oehme (University of Oldenburg) at the Mobile Brain Imaging Conference (MoBI 2024) in Piran (Slovenia). The poster entitled “Towards neural speech tracking and auditory attention decoding in everyday life” was received with great interest by the conference participants.

Kiel University recently presented initial findings from an ongoing sub-project at the 30th Innovation and Product Development Management Conference (IPDMC) in Lecco, Italy. As part of this project, the results of a study investigating the acceptance of radical service innovations among hearing care professionals were presented. The results of the study show that acceptance of radical service innovations, such as AI-powered hearing aids, is moderate and that internal communication does indeed play a decisive role in employee acceptance. However, the study also showed that it is not enough to emphasise only the positive aspects of a service through targeted communication. Instead, it is important to initiate an honest and transparent discussion about the advantages and disadvantages within the company. Further exciting results from the study are expected this year.

On 26 and 27 February 2024, the A2I partners met at the OFFIS Institute for Information Technology in Oldenburg to discuss the status of the work and plan the coming months. Project partner Iconstorm, which has now completed its work and will leave the project at the end of February, gave a final presentation on the results achieved. The ongoing evaluation studies and their analyses were discussed in detail and the publication plans were updated.

The A2I team met on August 20-21, 2024 on the premises of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel for a final meeting, as the joint project is now coming to an end after 3.5 years. At the meeting, the results of the various work streams (audiology, cardiology, occupational medicine and the empirical work on acceptance factors for radical innovations) were presented and discussed. The partners agreed that the project - despite all the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic - has achieved exciting research results and also generated many ideas for future research for the research institutions involved. However, the work is not yet complete and several scientific publications on the project’s research results are expected in the coming months.