Empowerment In Healthcare Research Articles

Healthcare Marketing Evolution: A Comprehensive Exploration of New-Age Strategies and Patient-Centric Paradigms

This qualitative exploratory research examines the dynamic healthcare market, characterized by its unique interplay between healthcare provision, technological advancements, and evolving marketing strategies. It explores new-age marketing strategies, including digital presence, content marketing, personalization, telehealth, mHealth, social media, patient reviews, healthcare CRM systems, interactive tools, chatbots, and online marketing. The “Digital Presence and Optimization” strategy promotes visibility and engagement through user-friendly websites, SEO, mobile optimization, and social media interaction. “Content Marketing” builds trust and authority by generating useful, empathic content. “Personalization” personalizes healthcare and communications to engage patients. “Telehealth and mHealth” provide remote healthcare and digital health support. “Social Media and Influencer Partnerships” boost brand awareness and trust. Positive patient experiences under “Patient Reviews and Testimonials” influence potential patients. Patient data is centralized in “Healthcare CRM Systems” for personalized communication and targeted advertising. “Interactive Tools and Chatbots” enable instant health information access and patient participation. “Online Advertising” targets demographics and interests on digital channels. This research contributes nuanced insights to healthcare marketing discourse, emphasizing patient-centric approaches and the integration of digital innovations in a competitive market. The findings underscore the necessity for healthcare providers to adopt a more integrated, patient-focused approach to marketing, reflecting the broader trends of digitalization and consumer empowerment in healthcare. This article contributes to the academic discourse on healthcare marketing by providing insights into the strategies shaping the future of patient engagement and healthcare delivery in the digital era.

THE IMPACT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE APPLICATIONS ON ENHANCING PROFESSIONAL EMPOWERMENT FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF MEDICAL SECTOR WORKERS

Purpose: This study examines the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on professional empowerment in the medical sector. It assesses AI application level, evaluates professional empowerment, examines the relationship between AI utilization and empowerment, and proposes strategies to enhance empowerment, including improved AI integration, training programs, and supportive work environments.
 
 Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework focuses on the relationship between AI applications and professional empowerment in the medical sector. It incorporates AI adoption theory, empowerment theory, motivation theories, technology acceptance models, and social cognitive theory. The framework explains how AI enhances professional empowerment by enabling employees to make informed decisions, acquire new skills, and engage in decision-making processes. It also highlights the role of AI in fostering a sense of purpose and fulfillment within the workforce.
 
 Design/Methodology/Approach: This study uses a descriptive analytical research design to examine the impact of AI applications on professional empowerment in the medical sector. A structured questionnaire is used to collect data on participants' perceptions of AI application levels, professional empowerment dimensions, and demographic variables. The study adheres to ethical guidelines and uses descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze the data.
 
 Findings: The study reveals an average level of AI application in the medical sector, with common applications like diagnostic algorithms and predictive analytics. AI-driven tasks contribute to moderate motivation and access to training and learning opportunities. The study also highlights the positive impact of AI on professional empowerment, highlighting the need for strategic implementation of AI technologies to enhance workforce empowerment and patient outcomes.
 
 Research, Practical & Social Implications: The study reveals an average level of AI application in the medical sector, with common applications like diagnostic algorithms and predictive analytics. AI-driven tasks contribute to moderate motivation and access to training and learning opportunities. The study also highlights the positive impact of AI on professional empowerment, highlighting the need for strategic implementation of AI technologies to enhance workforce empowerment and patient outcomes.
 
 Originality/Value: This study explores the relationship between AI applications and professional empowerment in the medical sector. It provides empirical evidence on the impact of AI adoption on professional empowerment, offering practical guidance for healthcare organizations. The study also highlights the broader social implications of AI-driven professional empowerment in healthcare.

The Contribution of Empowerment to Bioethics in the Obstetric Care Context

Empowerment in healthcare is becoming increasingly popular, including in obstetrics, because of its benefits for both individual health and health promotion. Many authors and organizations, such as the World Health Organization, advocate it as a means of engaging communities in the adoption of health-promoting behaviors and fostering patient-centered care. It aims to enable patients to assert their decisions and choices while respecting their personal values. This desire to respect the uniqueness and autonomy of each individual echoes a number of ethical principles and theories. In this article, the authors aim to answer the question, How can the concept of empowerment in healthcare contribute to bioethics? They argue that it has important links with feminist bioethics, notably the theory of relational autonomy, as well as with the capability theory of economist and philosopher Amartya Sen.

Understandings of community participation and empowerment in primary health care in Emilia-Romagna, Italy: A qualitative interview study with practitioners and stakeholders.

Community participation (CP) and empowerment (CE) have long been viewed internationally as cornerstones of comprehensive primary health care (PHC). Accordingly, policies for new PHC models in Italy, such as the Community Health Centres called "Case della Salute" in 2006 and "Case della Comunità" in 2022, highlight the importance of implementing participatory processes with communities and creating opportunities for CE. This study's objective is to identify the understandings of CP and CE that emerge among practitioners and stakeholders who design participatory approaches in PHC practice and policy in the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy. Nineteen semistructured interviews were conducted with practitioners working on CP and CE processes in these Community Health Centres and with stakeholders involved in research on or the coordination of such processes in the context of these health centres. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis in light of the following two questions, which emerged inductively from the data: (1) How to support CP and CE processes in practical doing (how do CP/CE)? (2) With which function or aim to support CP and CE (why do CP/CE)? This study shows that the participating practitioners and stakeholders exhibited various understandings of CP and CE in the context of PHC. Four main themes were identified: CP and CE as (a) a variety of forms of dialogue and cooperation, (b) tools for service development, (c) levers for empowerment, collectivism, and democracy and (d) stimuli for institutional change and a new level of professionalism. Moreover, the participants defined "the community" in different ways and often chose specific subgroups within the community to promote CP and CE processes. This study elucidates different perspectives on CP and CE and highlights the opportunities and obstacles for policymaking, research and practice that result from these understandings.

Digital Empowerment in Healthcare: An In-depth Study on the Integration of Internet Resources for Nursing Excellence in Hospital Environments with special reference to Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

This study examines the dynamics of digital empowerment in healthcare, with a particular emphasis on Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, and the integration of online resources for nursing excellence in hospital settings. In order to obtain thorough insights, the study uses a mixed-methods strategy that combines direct observations, qualitative interviews, and quantitative surveys. A stratified random sample technique is incorporated into the research design to guarantee representation from different types of hospitals. The results show distinct difficulties with integrating technology, different degrees of digital literacy among nurses, and beneficial effects on patient care. There are issues with inclusion and data security in the digital infrastructure. Suggestions include ways to integrate the internet efficiently, specific training initiatives, ways to improve infrastructure and policy, and directions for further study. The study adds to the current conversation on digital empowerment by giving policymakers and stakeholders in the healthcare industry useful information.

A Health Equity-Oriented Research Agenda Requires Comprehensive Community Engagement.

Health policy and research communities have taken new approaches to addressing health equity, going beyond traditional methods that often excluded the contributions of health care consumers and persons with lived experience. This reevaluation has the potential to drive critical improvements in how we conduct research and innovate policy toward reducing health and health care disparities in the United States. Such considerations have led Fountain House, the founder of the Clubhouse model for peer-based psychosocial rehabilitation for persons with histories of serious mental illness, to incorporate community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) protocols within their research and service programs. The combination of CBPAR research methods within novel participatory care settings like Clubhouse programs presents unique and informative opportunities for the advancement of innovative health equity approaches to consumer empowerment in health care. In this piece, the authors (two staff researchers and one member researcher) propose how CBPAR research methods conducted in Clubhouses can uniquely advance equity-focused research methods, and how the benefit and enhancements from equity-focused research are continuously applied, practiced, and accountable to the communities within which the research is conducted. Embedding CBPAR practices within participatory care settings like Clubhouses, creates novel opportunities for research work to not only become more equitable but also become a part of the rehabilitative process, empowering the main beneficiaries of the research with the means to sustain and achieve further improvements for themselves. Such experiences are particularly important within rehabilitation settings, where there is a process of reclaiming empowerment and self-efficacy over a disability or illness and the social circumstances surrounding those conditions. Different stakeholders can all play important roles in advancing health equity–oriented research agendas by leveraging CBPAR principles. Academics and others in the research community can more comprehensively embed CBPAR methods into the design of their research studies. A critical link exists among how researchers conduct their studies, how providers organize care delivery and support, and how health plans pay for and evaluate care. CBPAR-generated research needs to fully engage clinical teams to ensure that ongoing community-involved care settings have direct applications to real-world care delivery. It is equally important that providers fully engage with their communities as they adjust their approaches to supporting the populations they serve.

Interaction Empowerment in Mobile Health: Concepts, Challenges, and Perspectives.

In its most trending interpretation, empowerment in health care is implemented as a patient-centered approach. In the same sense, many mobile health (mHealth) apps are being developed with a primary focus on the individual user. The integration of mHealth apps into the health care system has the potential to counteract existing challenges, including incomplete or nonstandardized medical data and lack of communication, especially in the intersectional context (eg, patients, medical forces). However, concerns about data security and privacy, regional differences in regulations, lack of accessibility, and nontransparent apps hinder the successful integration of mHealth into the health care system. One approach to address this is to rethink the interpretation of empowerment. On that basis, we here examine existing approaches of individual empowerment and subsequently analyze a different view of empowerment in digital health, namely interaction empowerment. Such a change of perspective could positively influence intersectoral communication and facilitate secure data and knowledge sharing. We discuss this novel viewpoint on empowerment, focusing on more efficient integration and development of mHealth approaches. A renewed interpretation of empowerment could thus buffer current limitations of individual empowerment while also advancing digitization of the health system.

Practicing Hope: Enhancing Empowerment in Primary Health Care through Community-based Participatory Research.

The World Health Organization's (WHO's) Declaration of Alma Ata in 1978 made Primary Health Care (PHC) the official health policy of all WHO member countries, stressing the importance of multisectoral collaboration and community empowerment as critical for delivering quality primary healthcare and public health services to achieve social justice and health equity. Over forty years later, a divide remains between seeing individual patients in the traditional biomedical model and addressing population-level social determinants of health. One promising approach for the intentional and active integration of multi-sectoral partnering practices and community empowerment into Primary Health Care is the use of community-based participatory research (CBPR). The power of CBPR lies in its systematic approach to facilitating equitable collaboration of partners based on community priorities and strengths and is increasingly recognized for improving health equity outcomes. This paper highlights the use of CBPR as a promising practice for healthcare organizations to bridge the gap between the traditional individual patient focus and the comprehensive primary healthcare approach from WHO. We use a narrative case study from A Ministry of Sharing (AMOS) Health and Hope, a PHC organization in Nicaragua, to illustrate the use of the CBPR model as an implementation framework that facilitated the transformation of structures, policies, and practices as AMOS created multi-sector partnerships and embraced community empowerment as part of its strategic and comprehensive approach to health equity.

Community participation and empowerment in primary health care in Emilia-Romagna: A document analysis study

Community participation and empowerment are seen as fundamental for achieving equitable, people-centred primary health care. Emilia-Romagna region introduced the Casa della Salute aiming to foster comprehensive primary health care and support community participation. Since the 1990s, community involvement has been promoted to improve the regional health system. The pivotal role of third sector organisations as service providers and advocates for users’ rights has been underlined. This contribution explores the evolution of the meaning and conceptualisation of community participation and empowerment in policies addressing the Casa della Salute. A qualitative document analysis study was undertaken. Three national and twelve regional documents dated between 2006 and 2019 were evaluated. The policies continuously address community participation. The Casa della Salute is seen as a designated place to promote participation and empowerment. The documents point to the need for democratic practice and shared decision-making power; third sector organisations are seen as salient community representatives and mediators. However, the policies show only a vague conceptualisation of how to empower communities; moreover, strategies to promote participation of vulnerable groups are lacking. Policies that consider the ambiguous role of the third sector, specify community empowerment, identify strategies to facilitate it and collaborate with vulnerable groups could be beneficial for further progress.

The Little Engine that Could: Psychological Empowerment in Healthcare

Given the steadily increasing and unsustainable rise in healthcare costs, due in large part to its labor component, healthcare administrators are facing pressure to increase productivity and manage labor costs. The purpose of this study was to identify relationships between the dimensions of psychological empowerment (PE) and above-norm performance, or discretionary, pro-organizational behavior measured as organizational citizenship behavior in a sample of healthcare employees. Understanding this linkage will help healthcare managers increase labor productivity and contribute to healthcare expense control. Data were obtained from a general hospital (n = 137). Using hierarchical regressions to elucidate the incremental and total contribution of PE to the variance in OCB, we built models with the PE cognitions (meaning, self-determination, impact, and competence) as independent variables, to test the hypothesized linkages. This is the first known study to provide evidence of the direct relationship between psychological empowerment and OCB. Results indicated that employees whose work roles are consistent with their personal values (psychological empowerment meaning), and who feel able to shape and perform their jobs (psychological empowerment competence) are more likely to be intrinsically motivated, and engage in conscientiousness, altruistic, and obedience OCB. This knowledge can help healthcare managers understand how to increase empowerment and thereby gain productivity without increasing labor cost.

Models for Developing Community Organizations to Reinforce Health Management in Small Businesses.

The incidence of occupational diseases in small businesses is higher than in big ones, and this fact puts the former in need of a healthcare management model they can administer. This study established a model based on community organizational development theory to reinforce worker empowerment for healthcare in small businesses, focusing on health centers for workers (HCFW). The researchers surveyed 408 workers at 39 small businesses in the B region of South Korea, according to the characteristics of business sites, general characteristics of workers, and elements of community organizational development theory, and analyzed their results with a structural equation. The research period was September, 2015. Five concepts were examined: empowerment in healthcare, community capacity, participation and relevance, critical consciousness, and issue selection. The results revealed that greater community capacity led to greater participation and relevance (γ = 0.39) and empowerment in healthcare (γ = 0.25), while greater participation and relevance led to greater empowerment in healthcare (γ = 0.76). In addition, greater critical consciousness led to greater participation and relevance (γ = 0.12). Finally, greater community capacity led to greater issues selection (γ = 0.56), which in turn led to greater participation and relevance (γ = 0.25). The study makes proposals for directions of health centers for workers and community networks. Confirmation of this model for worker empowerment suggests several directions to HCFW in relation to workers and community networks.

Fits and Misfits: The Impact of Individual Differences on Psychological Empowerment in Healthcare

This paper acknowledges the labor productivity problem in healthcare, and investigates individual differences as determinants of psychological empowerment, which may be a partial solution to the problem. Using data from 363 clinical nurses, two individual differences - aversive personalities and job/organization fit - representing a bipolar division of employees, were examined for their linkage with psychological empowerment. As hypothesized, the aversive personality psychopathy was negatively linked to empowerment. Employees with longer time in healthcare, higher in religiosity, whose job-related needs are satisfied by the hospital, and who believe that their abilities are a good fit with their job demands are more likely to be psychologically empowered. Easy, reliable tests to screen for high psychopathy in hiring and placing individuals in jobs in which empowerment is desired, and managerial interventions to increase need satisfaction and demand-ability fit, may increase empowerment and thus productivity with no increase in wage costs.

Exploring patient empowerment

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a research framework for exploring and improving patient empowerment through the analysis of the effects produced by a satisfying physician relationship on patient involvement in the healthcare process.Design/methodology/approachThe authors begin with a literature review of patient empowerment in healthcare, useful to highlight the importance of relational aspects. Then, the authors tested the hypotheses of the research through the analysis of 450 questionnaires. The results are analyzed through covariance-based structural equation modeling.FindingsThis paper highlights how empowerment is a more complex phenomenon, needing many dimensions to be investigated. The hypotheses were tested, and correlations computed, highlighting a medium-strong positive correlation between physician relationship and patient involvement determining satisfying patient empowerment.Research limitations/implicationsThe considerations conducted in the paper are restricted to physician relationship and needs further research aimed to analyze and evaluate the changes in the patient behaviors influenced by empowerment.Practical implicationsThe research points offer new insight into patient empowerment and allow the healthcare provider to create new opportunities for promoting patient empowerment through the development of quality relationship for effective patient involvement.Originality/valueThe study developed contributes new insight about patient empowerment in the healthcare management literature, proving the key role of satisfying physician relationship useful for future researches.

Patient empowerment and involvement in telemedicine

Objective: Telemedicine is a rapidly expanding area, and this article discusses the implications of patient empowerment and user involvement in relation to frail patients. Our aim is to critique the mechanical way telemedicine is being implemented in the health sector.Methods: We present the basic ideas of empowerment and user involvement behind telemedicine, exemplifying them with a case of user resistance to telemedicine. Four logics of empowerment are employed to identify the underlying rationale in specific cases of telemedicine. The case comes from a large evaluation of new welfare technology products. The data consist mainly of written documents and an interview.Results: Telemedicine is often considered a way to increase empowerment and user involvement in healthcare. The majority of the geriatric patients in the described case refused to engage in telemedicine, preferring instead to be hospitalized. The case appeared to be driven primarily by a professional logic of empowerment. User involvement and empowerment are discussed in terms of their demands and implication for users, such as 1) intrusion on the private sphere, i.e., the home and 2) the question of the responsibility for treatment and 3) the expectation, that the capabilities and resources of patients and relatives may increase.Conclusions: Although telemedicine is acknowledged as relevant, a mechanical approach too often hampers empowerment for the patient. Some patient groups may not feel safe using telemedicine, in which case user involvement and empowerment are not possible.

The effects of patient-centered communication, social capital, and internet use on patient empowerment: a cross-sectional study in China.

Patient empowerment is a relatively new concept in the context of the Chinese health care system. Based on Street's ecological framework of communication in healthcare settings, this study examined the social, clinical and media factors that could empower patients. Results from a survey of 401 Chinese adults (response rate, 34%) showed that respondents felt more empowered as health care consumers when they reported having more social capital bonding and bridging, and used the Internet for health purposes more often. Importantly, having had more positive patient-centered communicative experiences with health care providers not only predicted patient empowerment, it also moderated the effects of bridging social capital and Internet use on empowerment. Specifically, the more positive the experience of interacting with health care providers, the weaker the effects of bridging social capital and Internet use on patient empowerment. The findings have important implications for patient empowerment in health care, particularly within the context of China.

From erasure to opportunity: a qualitative study of the experiences of transgender men around pregnancy and recommendations for providers

BackgroundSome transgender men retain their uterus, get pregnant, and give birth. However, societal attitudes about gender have erected barriers to openly being pregnant and giving birth as a transgender man. Little research exists regarding transgender men’s reproductive needs. Anecdotal observations suggest that social change and increasing empowerment of transgender men may result in increasing frequency and openness about pregnancy and birth. Specific needs around conception, pregnancy, and newborn care may arise from transphobia, exogenous testosterone exposure, or from having had (or desiring) gender-affirming surgery. We undertook a qualitative study to understand the needs of transgender men who had given birth.MethodsWe interviewed 10 transgender men who had been recruited for a recently published online cross-sectional survey of individuals (n = 41). Subjects had given birth while identifying as male. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and systematically coded. Analysis used a priori and emergent codes to identify central themes and develop a framework for understanding participant experiences.ResultsParticipants reported diverse experiences and values on issues including prioritization and sequencing of transition versus reproduction, empowerment in healthcare, desire for external affirmation of their gender and/or pregnancy, access to social supports, and degree of outness as male, transgender, or pregnant. We identified structural barriers that disempowered participants and describe healthcare components that felt safe and empowering. We describe how patients’ strategies, and providers’ behaviors, affected empowerment. Anticipatory guidance from providers was central in promoting security and empowerment for these individuals as patients.ConclusionsRecognizing diverse experiences has implications in supporting future patients through promoting patient-centered care and increasing the experiential legibility. Institutional erasure creates barriers to transgender men getting routine perinatal care. Identifying this erasure helps shape recommendations for how providers and clinics can provide appropriate care. Specific information regarding reproduction can be helpful to patients. We provide recommendations for providers’ anticipatory guidance during the pre-transition, pre-conception, prenatal, and postpartum periods. Ways to support and bring visibility to the experience of transgender men are identified. Improving clinical visibility and affirming gender will likely enhance patient experience and may support patient-centered perinatal healthcare services.

Visions of Illness, Disease, and Sickness in Mobile Health Applications

Popular media and public health care discourses describe an increasing number of mobile health technologies. These applications tend to be presented as a means of achieving patient empowerment, patient-centered care, and cost-reduction in public health care. Few of these accounts examine the health perspectives informing these technologies or the practices of the users of mobile health applications and the kind of data they collect. This article proposes a critical approach to analyzing digital health technologies based on different visions of disease, namely disease, illness, and sickness. The proposed analytical classification system is applied to a set of “mobile health solutions” presented by the Norwegian Technology Council and juxtaposed with the reported use and non-use of several mobile health applications among young patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The discussion shows how visions on health and disease can affect a patient’s embodied experiences of a physical condition, and, secondly, illustrates how the particular vision inscribed in a mobile health technology can be negotiated to include the patient’s vision.

Milestones, barriers and beacons: Shared decision making in Canada inches ahead

Canada's approach to shared decision making (SDM) remains as disparate as its healthcare system; a conglomerate of 14 public plans – ten provincial, three territorial and one federal. The healthcare research funding environment has been largely positive for SDM because there was funding for knowledge translation research which also encompassed SDM. The funding climate currently places new emphasis on patient involvement in research and on patient empowerment in healthcare. SDM fields have expanded from primary care to elder care, paediatrics, emergency and critical care medicine, cardiology, nutrition, occupational therapy and workplace rehabilitation. Also, SDM has reached out to embrace other health-related decisions including about home care and social care and has been adapted to Aboriginal decision making needs. Canadian researchers have developed new interprofessional SDM models that are being used worldwide. Professional interest in SDM in Canada is not yet widespread, but there are provincial initiatives in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. Decision aids are routinely used in some areas, for example for prostate cancer in Saskatchewan, and many others are available for online consultation. The Patient Decision Aids Research Group in Ottawa, Ontario maintains an international inventory of decision aids appraised with the International Patient Decision Aid Standards. The Canada Research Chair in SDM and Knowledge Translation in Quebec City maintains a website of SDM training programs available worldwide. These initiatives are positive, but the future of SDM in Canada depends on whether health policies, health professionals and the public culture fully embrace it.

Mothers' empowerment and father involvement in child health care in Bangladesh

With the advent of a couple-approach to health, particularly in the arena of reproductive health and child health, father involvement in child health care has become an important focus of preventative health. This study assesses the association between mothers' empowerment variables and father involvement in childcare in Bangladesh using data from a subsample of 903 women from the Couples Dataset of the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2011. Father involvement in child health care was measured as a count variable enumerating the number of specific events during which the father was present: child's last doctor's visit, child's immunization, and birth. Poisson regression was conducted to assess the association between empowerment and demographic variables and father involvement. Results indicated that mothers' household decision-making power and age above 45years, and fathers' age, fathers' education, and family wealth were significantly associated with father involvement. The study concludes that older and more educated fathers with family wealth and whose wives denied having household decision-making power were more likely to be involved in their children's lives than their counterparts.

Communication and citizenship empowerment in health care: a case of action-research in a polarized Venezuela

An action-research project was implemented in Venezuela from 2009-2013 to empower social activists and patients in their fight against breast cancer (BC). The project was implemented in a context of high political and social polarization of the so-called “Bolivarian revolution”. Based on an ecological perspective of health activism and communication, that encompasses the interpersonal, group and social levels, a series of activities were celebrated to develop the advocacy capabilities of citizens, especially women, expand the collaborative networks among different stakeholders, and promote a consensual view between social and institutional actors about a national response to fight BC. A horizontal and participatory communication allowed that the voice of usually marginalized actors was heard in the process of shaping health care policy.