Customer Empowerment in Healthcare Organisations Through CRM 2.0: Survey Results from Brunei Tracking a Future Path in E-Health Research

The idea of customers’ empowerment in healthcare emerged in response to the rising concern that customers or patients should be able to play a critical role in improving their own health. In traditional healthcare practices, a patient is the recipient of care as well as medical decisions. However, a paradigm shift has taken place – that is, a change from patients who merely receive care to those who actively participate in their healthcare. This change emerged in the 1960s and has spread throughout the entire healthcare industry as a social movement characterised by the right to act based on informed choice, active participation, a self-help perspective, and full engagement in critical processes (Kieffer, 1984). Traditionally, healthcare providers have made most of the decisions on treatments. Indeed, the lack of participation of patients in healthcare processes was the main obstacle to the empowerment of patients as customers. Nevertheless, there will always be circumstances in which patients choose to hand over responsibility for