Background Interest in digital technologies in the health care sector is growing and can be a way to reduce the burden on professional caregivers while helping people to become more independent. Social robots are regarded as a special form of technology that can be usefully applied in professional caregiving with the potential to focus on interpersonal contact. While implementation is progressing slowly, a debate on the concepts and applications of social robots in future care is necessary. Objective In addition to existing studies with a focus on societal attitudes toward social robots, there is a need to understand the views of professional caregivers and patients. This study used desired future scenarios to collate the perspectives of experts and analyze the significance for developing the place of social robots in care. Methods In February 2020, an expert workshop was held with 88 participants (health professionals and educators; [PhD] students of medicine, health care, professional care, and technology; patient advocates; software developers; government representatives; and research fellows) from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Using the scenario methodology, the possibilities of analog professional care (Analog Care), fully robotic professional care (Robotic Care), teams of robots and professional caregivers (Deep Care), and professional caregivers supported by robots (Smart Care) were discussed. The scenarios were used as a stimulus for the development of ideas about future professional caregiving. The discussion was evaluated using qualitative content analysis. Results The majority of the experts were in favor of care in which people are supported by technology (Deep Care) and developed similar scenarios with a focus on dignity-centeredness. The discussions then focused on the steps necessary for its implementation, highlighting a strong need for the development of eHealth competence in society, a change in the training of professional caregivers, and cross-sectoral concepts. The experts also saw user acceptance as crucial to the use of robotics. This involves the acceptance of both professional caregivers and care recipients. Conclusions The literature review and subsequent workshop revealed how decision-making about the value of social robots depends on personal characteristics related to experience and values. There is therefore a strong need to recognize individual perspectives of care before social robots become an integrated part of care in the future.

BACKGROUND The interest in digital technologies in health care is increasing and can be a way of relieving the burden on health care professionals. This relief can lead on the one hand to higher job satisfac-tion an on the other hand to a higher attractiveness of the nursing profession. Social robots are regarded as a special form of technology that can be usefully applied in nursing because of their focus on interpersonal contacts. They differ from service robots by their additionally brought forward empathetic behavior during the execution of activities. The implementation of robots raises ethical questions. While the implementation progresses slowly there is a need for the de-bate about concepts and applications. OBJECTIVE In addition to existing studies with a focus on societal attitudes to social robots there is a need for concepts and evaluation of the potential of social robots in nursing. This elaboration enables to channel scientific findings and developments. It is important to take the perspectives of health care professionals and patients into account. METHODS An expert workshop with 88 participants (health care professionals and educators, (PhD-) stu-dents of medicine, health care, nursing and technology, patient advocates, software developers, representatives from government, and research fellows) from Austria, Germany and Switzer-land was held in February 2020. The workshop included group discussions, presentations on social robots and short plays of different future scenarios. These four future scenarios served as a basis for the discussions and showed the possibility of analogue nursing, completely robotic nursing, teams of robots and nursing staff (Deep Care) as well as nurses supported by robots (Smart Care). RESULTS In the discussions most groups opted for Smart Care. The experts saw a need for implementa-tion through skills labs and multidisciplinary development teams. However, the discussions also revealed that there is a strong need for the development of eHealth literacy in society, a change in the training of nurses and concepts that transcend sector boundaries. CONCLUSIONS It became clear that the decision for or against a scenario was strongly dependent on one’s own experiences and values. Therefore, there is a strong need to ascertain the wishes of society re-garding the future of care.