Design for Empowerment in Healthcare

Empowering patients in their health and wellbeing has been commonly set as an objective, with the aim to increase the quality of life and sustain the limited resources of healthcare services. However, empowerment is also commonly interpreted as an early shift of decision-making responsibility. In this seminar, I will present the findings of my PhD study with people living with chronic conditions and discuss ways to design for empowerment. Empowerment is a journey that is closely linked to everyday life with its competing priorities and inevitable adaptations to self-management. Individual’s readiness for empowerment should be taken into consideration. The designed products and services have potential to facilitate empowerment by providing the right support at the right time.