This study examined how healthcare professionals in Finnish primary care incorporate service personalization in their practices, focusing on the role of information technology (IT). By analyzing interviews with healthcare professionals, we identified three types of personalization: coercive personalization, data display personalization, and collaboration-based personalization. These insights reveal how IT supports individualized care and inform future design of healthcare IT systems.
What was the context of our study?
Personalization in healthcare is essential due to the diverse characteristics, medical conditions, and preferences of patients. IT plays a critical role in enabling personalized care by providing tailored data and tools to support decision-making. Despite its importance, little research has explored the nuances of service personalization in primary healthcare settings, especially from a qualitative, service design perspective.
What did we do?
We conducted 60-minute semi-structured interviews with six experienced healthcare professionals, including a nurse, two medical doctors, and three nutritionists. The participants were asked about their work practices and IT use during consultations, without specific prompts on personalization. Thematic analysis was used to categorize personalization elements based on a previously established framework for IT-supported care personalization.
What did we find?
The study revealed three key forms of IT-supported personalization:
- Coercive Personalization: Healthcare professionals adhered to standardized regulations and IT system functionalities, which influenced the degree of personalization in service delivery.
- Data Display Personalization: IT facilitated visualization of patient-specific data, such as digital diaries and progress monitoring, enabling constructive discussions between patients and providers.
- Collaboration-Based Personalization: Consultations supported by IT enabled deeper understanding of patient contexts, life situations, and motivations, fostering shared decision-making.
Why is this important?
Understanding how IT facilitates personalization provides actionable insights for designing more effective healthcare systems. By addressing the needs and workflows of healthcare professionals, IT solutions can better support personalized patient care. This study highlights the importance of integrating service design principles into healthcare IT development to enhance patient-provider interactions and improve health outcomes.
Reference
Korhonen O, Mylonopoulou V, Giunti G. Service Personalization in IT-Supported Finnish Healthcare. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. 2020;270:1385–1386. https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI200454