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Springer International Publishing

Jose Teixeira, Springer International Publishing. In: Kaija Saranto, Maaret Castrén, Tiina Kuusela, Sami Hyrynsalmi, Stina Ojala (Eds.), Safe and Secure Cities, Communications in Computer and Information Science 450, 203–210, Springer International Publishing, 2014.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10211-5_21

Abstract:

Healthcare information systems are traditionally developed within the R&D labs of medical instrumentation providers, software houses, technology consultancy firms, medical faculties and hospitals. Professionals with either medical or IT backgrounds are the perpetual analysts and developers of most health-care information systems on the market. However, we are aware of a new phenomenon where patients are themselves creators of their own health-care information systems.
This user-innovation phenomenon was already addressed in academia but mostly by looking at the systems per se or their development. In this paper, we turn to the users by exploring the consumer behaviors of patients using such patient-innovated systems, i.e. we explore the consumer behaviors of patients using open-source disease control software developed by other patients.
Taking a Netnographic approach, a novel approach with roots in cultural anthropology, we screened the product pages and relevant Internet forums around three open-source projects providing disease control software: GNU Gluco Control, MySHI (My Self Health Information) and PumpDownload. A rich set of qualitative data was collected from Internet sites, capturing the users backgrounds, lifestyles, medical conditions and their reasons behind the usage of alternative open-source disease control software.
The Grounded Theory method was employed to analyze the data and the method theory-building functions used to propose a theory emphasizing two key motivations for the use of disease control software: the patients desire for a more active role in managing their diseases, and the patients annoyance with defective by design vendor lock-in mechanisms within the traditional and marked dominant­ disease-control products.
Our contributions increase the understanding on the symbolism, meaning, and consumption patterns of this niche consumer group by screening publicly available data on the Internet, with implication to the body of theoretical knowledge in healthcare information systems, chronic care management and practitioners within the industry of disease control.

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BibTeX entry:

@INPROCEEDINGS{inpTeixeira_Jose14b,
  title = {Springer International Publishing},
  booktitle = {Safe and Secure Cities},
  author = {Teixeira, Jose},
  volume = {450},
  series = {Communications in Computer and Information Science},
  editor = {Saranto, Kaija and Castrén, Maaret and Kuusela, Tiina and Hyrynsalmi, Sami and Ojala, Stina},
  publisher = {Springer International Publishing},
  pages = {203–210},
  year = {2014},
  keywords = {E-Health, Chronic Care, Patient Empowerment, Open-source, User innovation},
  ISSN = {1865-0929},
}

Belongs to TUCS Research Unit(s): UTU Information Systems Science (ISS)

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