Designing Health Interface Technologies to Support Patients’ and Healthcare Providers’ Individual and Collaborative Work

This dissertation research aims to improve the design of technologies that connect, facilitate interaction, and support the independent and collaborative work of patients and their healthcare providers (e.g., patient portals). Towards this end, I propose to analyze online patient questions about their health data asked both inside and outside of formal healthcare settings, as well as the answers that they receive, to generate insights into how these technologies can better meet patients’ needs and support shared decision making. In addition, to validate and extend this work, I will also directly engage stakeholders offline, with a special emphasis on understanding the perspectives and needs of diverse patient populations.