Stakeholder perspectives on circular solutions for digital health devices: qualitative interview data from Belgium, Spain and Slovenia

This dataset contains qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with professional stakeholders conducted in Belgium, Spain and Slovenia within DiCE – Digital Health in the Circular Economy. The interviews explored stakeholders’ experiences with and knowledge of digital health technologies, their views on the collection and recycling of digital health devices, and the conditions required to support more circular approaches. Participants represented a range of stakeholder groups involved in healthcare, waste management, recycling, public administration, education, innovation and related sectors. The interviews addressed several themes, including digital health technologies encountered in professional practice, questions or experiences related to their recycling, suitable locations and conditions for collecting discarded devices, the design of collection points, possible roles for professionals and organisations in circular models, and requirements for viable circular business models. The interviews also explored stakeholders’ perceptions of a proposed smart collection box after they were shown a video of an early prototype, as well as their willingness and potential role in future pilot activities. These topics correspond to the structure of the accompanying interview guide. The accompanying Excel workbook provides a consolidated overview of the interview data. It is organised into thematic worksheets covering participant profiles, knowledge and use of digital health applications, encounters with digital health technologies, experiences with recycling, preferred collection locations and conditions, circular business models, views on the smart collection box, and potential participation in pilots. Where available, the workbook contains both summarised or categorised responses and illustrative quotations. The purpose of the dataset is to provide insight into stakeholder requirements, perceived barriers, enabling conditions and potential organisational roles in the development and implementation of circular solutions for digital health devices. The data can support research and development related to e-waste collection, reverse logistics, stakeholder engagement, circular business models and the design of accessible and workable collection systems. The accompanying Interview Guide documents the semi-structured interview protocol used for data collection and should be consulted when interpreting or reusing the dataset. It includes questions on professional context, digital health applications, collection preferences and conditions, circular business models, the smart collection box concept and possible stakeholder roles in pilot implementation.