What are the developers of such systems missing?
A. The fact that the roles of both providers and patients are changing as healthcare moves online. Millions of sophisticated online consumers are already conducting self-directed and self-evaluated information searches. And in addition to the C-to-I (consumer to information) aspects of CHI, there are already a number of impressive and important C-to-C (consumer-to-consumer), C-to-P (consumer-to-provider) and C-to-S (consumer-to-software) domains, each demonstrating fascinating and unpredicted dynamics. Empowerment-based tools for end-users already exist, and there is much we can learn from studying them. Systems which do not fully support the empowered consumer typically experience the dreaded ‘end-user failure’–consumers do not like them and will not use them.
