will alternately and sometimes simultaneously act as a patient and as a consumer. In each role individuals will think and act differently and may consequently have a need for different services.
I differentiate between these two roles as follows:
- In the consumer role an individual will make choices of about the services that they need, when they need them and from whom they receive them. In this role, the consumer may engage service providers outside the traditional healthcare system such as a consumer health portal or consult with other individuals in on-line communities of interest. The concept of individual as healthcare consumer explains why services such as WebMD or the more recent revolution.com are gaining mindshare.
- In the patient role an individual has made choices regarding their healthcare services that they wish to receive and are engaged with one or more healthcare providers for these services. Just as banks and courier companies are using ICT to streamline operations and engage their customers in ways and at times that are most convenient to these customers so too can healthcare providers use ICT to engage their patients.
What do you think about this duality of roles and its impact on eHealth services?
1 comment:
Hi Michael;
During your Medicine 2.0 presentation, you spoke of how individuals may 'toggle' between the role of consumer and patient. You differentiated the two roles and indicated that an individual may be one or the other. Interesting to note though that in your blog you include the blurb 'sometimes simultaneously act as a patient and as a consumer'. I would suggest that defining these as roles, and distinguishing the two as distinct roles, is an over-simplification of the spectrum of patient characteristics. I was pleased (except that it negates my disagreement, and therefore the debate) that you do recognize that these are not exclusive roles. I'd suggest that these are not roles at all, rather they are characteristics of an individual, and an individual may be looking to be variable degrees of 'consumer' and 'patient' at any time. By describing it in this way, you recognize that a single offering (whether it be for consumers or patients) will not sufficiently provide for all patients or all consumers. There are several intrinsic and extrinsic variables that will make up the consumer/patient balance, and determine whether one consumer service works while another does not (and likewise for patient services). There needs to be flexibility.
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