Considerations for Deploying Web and Mobile Technologies to Support the Building of Patient Self-Efficacy and Self-Management of Chronic Illness

Abstract

This chapter examines issues relating to the introduction of information and communication technologies that have emerged as part of planning for the Pathways Home for Respiratory Illness project. The project aims to assist patients with chronic respiratory conditions (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cystic fibrosis) to achieve increased levels of self-management and self-efficacy through interactions with case mentors and the deployment of ICTs. The chapter highlights that in deploying ICTs, it is important to ensure that solutions implemented are based on a detailed understanding of users, their needs and complex interactions with health professionals, the health system, and their wider environment. Achieving benefits from the introduction of ICTs as part of processes aimed at building sustainable self-efficacy and self-management is very difficult, not least because of a desire to avoid simply replacing patient dependency on health professionals with dependency on technology. More specifically, it also requires sensitivity toward assumptions made about the role, impact, and importance of information per se given that it is often only one factor among many that influence health attitudes, perceptions, actions, and outcomes. More broadly, the chapter indicates that as ICT-supported patient-focused interventions become more common, there is a need to consider how assessments of benefit in terms of a cohort of patients inform us about an individual patient’s experience and what this implies for terms like individualized care or patient empowerment (Muir Gray, 2004). At this level, there are implications for clinical practice and one-size-fits-all care-delivery practices. This collaborative project involves a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Tasmania’s School of Medicine, School of Nursing and Midwifery, and School of Information Systems. The project is supported by the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services and funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, and is due for completion in June 2008.