Information and Communications Technology-Based Interventions Targeting Patient Empowerment: Framework Development.

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Digital Health
• Patient Empowerment

Background:

• Patient empowerment is a key goal of digital health interventions.
• Existing models lack a comprehensive framework for developing these interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• Propose a pragmatic framework for digital interventions to empower patients.
• Integrate a methodology linking objectives, strategies, and evaluation for intervention design.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of empowerment and technology intervention models.
• Iterated expert discussions and a focus group to formulate the framework.

Main Results:

• The framework incorporates core empowerment characteristics (control, self-efficacy, understanding, etc.).
• It outlines empowerment consequences (perceptions, behavior, outcomes) and ICT strategies.
• Includes example indicators and measurement instruments for evaluation.

Conclusions:

• The proposed framework facilitates the design and evaluation of digital patient empowerment interventions.
• It aids in developing methods to measure empowerment outcomes.
• Further interventional studies are needed to validate the model's generalizability.