CPHEB Seminar Edin Smailhodzic

On the 16th of March Edin Smailhodzic, assistant professor from our department of Innovation management & Strategy, will give a seminar.

Title: Managing self and others by patients with chronic diseases in two contrasting online health communities

Abstract: This paper draws on netnographic study of two online health communities to demonstrate how online health communities help chronic disease patients to manage themselves and relationships with others. Online health communities provide chronic disease patients an opportunity to communicate with a large number of their peers and to share their experiences. In doing so, they can understand their condition better, are empowered to actively manage their own health, and change themselves and their relationship with others. Drawing on netnographic work, we study two contrasting online health communities for people with chronic diseases, namely one for people with diabetes and one for people who suffer from a brain injury. Our study reveals that chronic patients use online health communities in ways that change who they are and what they do vis-à-vis their interactions with others. This study contributes to the literature on health information technology, specifically online health communities for chronic diseases, by exploring the construction and reconstruction of patient’s roles, showing how different online health community characteristics such as size and openness shape their roles and relationships.