Technology acceptance by patients: Empowerment and stigma

Abstract

Given the increased life expectancy and considering shortcomings in the care sector, it is a fundamental challenge how older and frail people can be empowered to stay in their private home, keeping up mobility and independency for a longer time. The maturity of information and communication technology on the one hand and of medical technology on the other basically allows technology to take over the monitoring and care. However, so far, the inclusion of human factors and technology acceptance into a successful technology design is not adequately met. In the following, we describe relevant facets of technology empowerment and stigmas and the need to rethink traditional concepts. First, the requirements of adequate use and design of information and communication technologies in the medical field are addressed. Second, as the prevailing image of age is no longer adequate to the current demographic change, the need to rethink age and aging is described. Finally the need of user-centered design is discussed, followed by the need of a rethinking of the technology design process and the inclusion of potential users. The chapter ends with a discussion focused on requirements of patient empowerment to reflect all the aforementioned aspects from a patient ‘s point of view.