Co-designing technologies in the context of hypertension care: Negotiating participation and technology use in design meetings

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research Interest: In this article, we take an interest in the new kind of relation that has been claimed to be urgently required between health services and patients. Co-production of health services implies fundamental changes in the ways medical care is organized and delivered. Usually, technologies are put forth as potential solutions to problems that might occur when establishing such new relations. Aims: The aim of this study is to scrutinize how different perspectives were brought into the discussions as the concrete design and use of a mobile phone application were introduced, and how participants anticipated and negotiated their own participation in the design project. Methods: This article reports results from an explorative study of a co-design project in hypertension care wherein health professionals and patients were invited to co-design some features of the application they were later to use. Results/Conclusions: The study shows that new practices of self-treatment are not likely to take place without the cooperation of patients, since they are to provide the observational data necessary for the professionals' work. The negotiations are needed to balance patients' concerns of being monitored by technology and their needs of being in control of their everyday lives and activities.