Incidental or Intentional? Achieving Consumer Empowerment in Electronic Healthcare Information Exchange

The emergence of technology which allows for electronic Healthcare Information Exchange (HIE) has created a need for change in the healthcare industry. Because sensitive health information can be shared electronically between many entities, it is important to re-examine how information should be shared. Recent initiatives have examined HIE technology, with the intention to involve the consumer/patient as a key stakeholder. Such initiatives seek to empower patients, and often claim that new technology can do so. This study investigates the dimensions of consumer empowerment in HIE and how consumer empowerment in HIE could be achieved. The analysis revealed that achieving consumer empowerment is a process of either intentional or incidental change, and is a multi-faceted concept. The process of consumer empowerment is presented from the grounded theory analysis of three levels of data sources. The implications are critical to generate appropriate policy, law, and technology.