What is E-patients

The area of E-health development for patient-healthcare interaction has lately received significant attention by the health informatics community. Increasingly healthcare and information technology (IT) developers are proposed to take seriously the needs and preferences of the patients. This chapter explores the multifaceted E-patient context, in an effort to contribute to an increased patient-centeredness of this form of technology development. Patient-centeredness is captured in terms of personalization as an attempt to depart from patients’ specific context to contribute to technology design and use. Using a qualitative approach, the chapter reports from 25 in-depth interviews performed with Swedish patients and representatives of patient associations. Six themes of the E-patient context derive from the findings (diagnosis, demographics, access, preferences, coping, and patient role). The results present a fine-grained picture of the E-patient context adding to previous approaches of personalization. The introductory discussion reflects on the themes in relation to their tentative implications for the development of patient-centered personalized E-health for patient-healthcare interaction.