JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Empowerment of patients is often an explicit goal of various Information and Communication Technology (ICT) interventions where the patients themselves use ICT tools via the internet. Although several models of empowerment exist, there is a lack of a comprehensive and pragmatic framework for the development of such interventions.

Objective:

This study proposes a framework for ICT interventions aiming to empower patients that includes a methodology that links objectives, strategies and evaluation

Methods:

This study is based on a literature review and iterated expert discussions including a Focus Group to formulate the proposed model. Our model is based on a review of various models of empowerment and models of technology intervention.

Results:

Our framework includes the core characteristics of the empowerment concept (control, psychological coping, self-efficacy, understanding, legitimacy and support) as well as a set of empowerment consequences: expressed patient perceptions, behaviour, clinical outcomes and health systems effects. The framework for designing interventions include strategies to achieve empowerment goals using different ICT services. Finally, the intervention model can be used to define evaluations of projects where the aim is to demonstrate empowerment. The study also includes example indicators and associated measurement instruments.

Conclusions:

This framework with definitions can be useful for the design and evaluation of ICT-interventions targeting patient empowerment and assist in the development of methods to measure the results in this dimension. Further evaluation in the form of interventional studies will be needed to assess the generalizability of the model.