Locating Patient Expertise in Everyday Life

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Social Computing
• Patient Support

Background:

• Managing new health issues requires knowledge and skills acquisition.
• Patients often seek experiential expertise from peers outside formal healthcare.
• Internet-based social software aids expertise sharing but struggles with locating patient expertise.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate patient expertise locating practices in the context of breast cancer.
• Explore the transferability of workplace expertise locating frameworks to personal health.
• Identify design opportunities for social software to support patient expertise location.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a field study guided by expertise locating frameworks.
• Investigated informal and everyday expertise locating practices among women with breast cancer.
• Analyzed similarities and differences between patient and professional expertise locating.

Main Results:

• Patient expertise locating shares similarities with professional practices but is often triggered by unsolicited advice.
• Patients use gatekeeping and triangulation strategies to identify and validate expertise.
• High-stakes health problems necessitate robust expertise location strategies.

Conclusions:

• Existing expertise locating frameworks have some applicability to personal health contexts.
• Key differences in patient needs (e.g., unsolicited advice triggers, high stakes) require tailored support.
• Five design additions to social software could enhance patients' ability to locate crucial peer expertise.