Saskia Kelders is Full Professor of Engaging eHealth Technologies at the Department of Psychology, Health and Technology at the University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands, and Extraordinary Professor at Optentia Research Focus Area at North-West University, South Africa. She leads the Engaging eHealth Technologies lab at the University of Twente, bringing together psychological, technological and human-centred perspectives to understand how people engage with digital health and how this engagement contributes to impact.

A central question in her work is not simply whether a digital health intervention works, but how, for whom, and under which circumstances it works. Her research focuses on engagement as a potential mechanism of impact: how people interact with digital interventions over time, how engagement is shaped by the person, the technology and the context, and how this knowledge can inform the design and evaluation of more effective and meaningful interventions. She combines insights from psychology, human-centred design, technology and implementation science with innovative research approaches, including factorial randomised controlled trials, single-case experimental designs, realist evaluation, and personalised and adaptive interventions.

She currently leads the ERC Starting Grant ENGAGE, which investigates engagement as a mechanism of impact in digital mental health interventions. Across her work, she aims to move towards a more nuanced understanding of digital health impact—one that recognises that there is no single form of “good” engagement, but that meaningful engagement depends on what the intervention is, who is using it, what they need, and the context in which it is used.

Saskia is editor of the eHealth Research, Theory and Development handbook and lead educator of the open online course eHealth: Combining Psychology, Health and Technology, which has attracted more than 27,000 participants worldwide.