Journal
JMIR MHEALTH AND UHEALTH
Volume 10, Issue 4, Pages -Publisher
JMIR PUBLICATIONS, INC
DOI: 10.2196/32696
Keywords
mHealth; mobile apps; patient empowerment; digital health; interaction empowerment; patient-doctor relationship; health care network; intersectoral communication
Funding
- Ministry of Science and Art Baden-Wurttemberg (Zentrum fur Innovative Versorgung)
- German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, as part of the DIFUTURE project (Medical Informatics Initiative) [01ZZ1804I]
- Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration Baden-Wurttemberg, project feelBack (networked, digital, patient-related psycho-oncology feedback)
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Empowerment in health care is implemented as a patient-centered approach, with many mHealth apps being developed for individual users. Integrating mHealth apps into the health care system can address challenges such as incomplete medical data and lack of communication. However, concerns about data security, regional differences in regulations, accessibility, and transparency hinder the successful integration. Rethinking the interpretation of empowerment could positively impact intersectoral communication and facilitate secure data sharing.
In its most trending interpretation, empowerment in health care is implemented as a patient-centered approach. In the same sense, many mobile health (mHealth) apps are being developed with a primary focus on the individual user. The integration of mHealth apps into the health care system has the potential to counteract existing challenges, including incomplete or nonstandardized medical data and lack of communication, especially in the intersectional context (eg, patients, medical forces). However, concerns about data security and privacy, regional differences in regulations, lack of accessibility, and nontransparent apps hinder the successful integration of mHealth into the health care system. One approach to address this is to rethink the interpretation of empowerment. On that basis, we here examine existing approaches of individual empowerment and subsequently analyze a different view of empowerment in digital health, namely interaction empowerment. Such a change of perspective could positively influence intersectoral communication and facilitate secure data and knowledge sharing. We discuss this novel viewpoint on empowerment, focusing on more efficient integration and development of mHealth approaches. A renewed interpretation of empowerment could thus buffer current limitations of individual empowerment while also advancing digitization of the health system.
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