Background: Modern approaches like patient-centered care ask health providers (e.g., nurses, physicians, and dietitians) to activate and include patients to participate in their healthcare. Mobile health (mHealth) is integral in this endeavor for more patient-centricity. However, structural and regulatory barriers have hindered their adoption. Existing mHealth apps often fail to activate and engage patients sufficiently. Moreover, such systems are seldom integrated well with health providers' workflow.Objective: This study investigates how patient-provider communication behaviors change when introducing patient-generated data into patient-provider communication.
Methods:We adopt the design science approach to design the PatientHub, an integrated digital health system that engages patients and providers in patient-centered care for weight management. The PatientHub was developed in four iterations and was evaluated in a three-week field study with 27 patients and six physicians. We analyzed 54 video recordings of PatientHubsupported consultations and interviews with patients and physicians.Results: PatientHub introduces patient-generated data into patient-provider communication. We observed three emerging behaviors when introducing patient-generated data into consultations. We name these behaviors emotion labeling, expectation decelerating, and decision ping pong. Our findings show how these behaviors enhance patient-provider communication and facilitate patient-centered care. Introducing patient-generated data leads to behaviors that make consultations more personal, actionable, trustworthy, and equal.
Conclusions:The results of this study indicate that patient-generated data facilitate patient-centered care by activating and engaging patients and providers. We propose three design principles for patient-centered communication. Patient-centered
