TY - GEN
T1 - Tackling dilemmas in supporting "the whole person" in online patient communities
AU - Huh, Jina
AU - Patel, Rupa
AU - Pratt, Wanda
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Online health communities that engage the patient as a whole person attend to personal and medical needs in a holistic manner. Whether current communities structure interaction between health professionals and patients to address the whole person is an open question. To gain insights into this question, we examined a sample of online patient communities to understand health professionals'involvement in bringing in medical advice into peer-patient conversations. We found the communities fall short in supporting the whole person, because (1) patient expertise and clinical expertise generated by health professionals are shared separately, and (2) patients'quantified data are separate from narrative experiences. Such separation in the design of these systems can lead to limitations in addressing patients'interwoven medical and personal concerns. We discuss dilemmas and design implications for supporting the whole person in online patient communities.
AB - Online health communities that engage the patient as a whole person attend to personal and medical needs in a holistic manner. Whether current communities structure interaction between health professionals and patients to address the whole person is an open question. To gain insights into this question, we examined a sample of online patient communities to understand health professionals'involvement in bringing in medical advice into peer-patient conversations. We found the communities fall short in supporting the whole person, because (1) patient expertise and clinical expertise generated by health professionals are shared separately, and (2) patients'quantified data are separate from narrative experiences. Such separation in the design of these systems can lead to limitations in addressing patients'interwoven medical and personal concerns. We discuss dilemmas and design implications for supporting the whole person in online patient communities.
KW - Collaborative help
KW - Health
KW - Online patient communities
KW - The whole person
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84862085567&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84862085567&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/2207676.2208535
DO - 10.1145/2207676.2208535
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84862085567
SN - 9781450310154
T3 - Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
SP - 923
EP - 926
BT - Conference Proceedings - The 30th ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2012
T2 - 30th ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2012
Y2 - 5 May 2012 through 10 May 2012
ER -
