The term emerged in the Anglo-American context in 1993 and is closely associated with Tom Ferguson (1943-2006), a physician, writer, and visionary. The field was originally defined as "the study, development and implementation of computer and telecommunications applications designed to be used by consumers in healthcare." This reflected Ferguson's vision that "the next generation of medical computer systems will serve the patient, not just the physician" (Demiris, 2006). Gunther Eysenbach, founder of the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is widely regarded as one of the key figures continuing Ferguson's intellectual tradition.

As a first step, we recommend getting in touch with a member of our team who is affiliated with your department and discussing your idea with them. It is also worth considering carefully whether your proposed topic genuinely falls within applied informatics. While the disciplinary boundaries are often blurry, the topic should primarily address the consumer-facing aspects of health IT – rather than, say, the design of continuous ICU monitoring systems, which belongs to a different academic tradition.

Doctoral study in the Applied Informatics (computing) programme runs for four years (eight semesters). Full-time enrolment requires doctoral candidates to dedicate 70% of their working time to research and study – roughly three and a half days per week, as stipulated by faculty regulations. A doctoral programme is not a continuation of master's study: coursework forms only a small part of the individual study plan and is primarily there to provide the methodological and theoretical grounding needed for independent research. The core of the programme is original scientific work, close collaboration with the supervisor, and involvement in the lab's research activities. The programme is structured around three colloquia, a pre-defence, and the final dissertation defence at the end of the fourth year. Under Czech higher education law, full-time doctoral candidates are entitled to a guaranteed monthly income of at least 1.2 times the statutory minimum wage (currently approximately CZK 25,000). Our aim is for doctoral candidates in the lab to have opportunities to supplement this income through participation in research projects.

The programme requires a total of four courses: one compulsory (IT_910 Foundations of Academic Research, a standard lecture-based course), two electives chosen from the informatics departments' catalogue, and one further elective agreed with the supervisor. Beyond these, much of the learning takes place through individual consultations and independent study. Within the CHI Lab, we recommend IT_911 Methods of Design Science and Qualitative Research as the fourth course, since research in human-computer interaction regularly calls for solid qualitative skills. Those interested in the social dimensions of technology may also find SA_902 Social Aspects of Information Technology a useful choice. Given the lab's interdisciplinary orientation, a strictly technical background is not a prerequisite – doctoral candidates with a background in psychology, anthropology, or other social sciences are welcome, provided their research interests fall within the broader framework of Applied Informatics.

We expect doctoral candidates to begin work on their first publication – typically a conference paper or a scoping review – already during the first semester, and to submit a journal manuscript by the end of the second semester. Target journals include both digital health venues (JMIR AI, Journal of Medical Systems) and journals at the interface of psychology and HCI such as Computers in Human Behavior (Elsevier) or Behaviour & Information Technology (Taylor & Francis). By the end of the third semester, the doctoral candidate is expected to present at an international conference; by the end of the second year, to complete a research stay abroad. Our ambition is for the dissertation to take the form of a publication-based thesis – ideally three articles in Q1/Q2 journals (WoS/Scopus), or two journal articles complemented by a paper at a recognised informatics conference rated CORE A*/A/B (an internationally used quality ranking for computing conferences, broadly comparable to impact-factor journals in other fields).