Research question§ Who guides the decision making of patients in

the digital era of health care industry, and how?

Roles of stakeholders in the digital age§ The Internet is proven to bring changes to

industries and industry dynamics, and health care industry is no exception.

§ Digitization of information has enabled health care providers and organizations to find alternative means to distribute information about their products and services.

§ Social changes and democratization, facilitated communication, and less information asymmetry have changed the traditional role of patients as well. The modern, health-conscious and informed patient-consumer is enabled and expected to take decision making in their own hands.

§ Thus, since the intermediaries are not the only people to go to for information, such changes imply that the need for presence of intermediaries can be eliminated.

Making Sense of the Unknown: The Decision Making of Patient-Consumers in the Digital Era of Health Care IndustryYasaman Sadeghi, ESR4Grenoble Ecole de Management

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under theMarie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 676201

The challenge for patient-consumers§ In order to make decisions, patient-consumers

need to scan their environment and find meanings in what they see to base their future actions on them. This activity is referred to as sensemaking.

§ With the abundance of available information, patients are facing too many choices, and therefore it becomes increasingly difficult for them to make sense of the available information and form their decision.

Preliminary observations• I argue that the presence of apomediaries as a

form of intermediary is needed for the patient-consumers to make better decisions:

• While patients have become more powerful in the dynamics of health care industry, their entirely independent decision making may prove to be ineffective, as their sensemaking abilities are hindered in the abundance of environmental cues based on which sense can be made.

• Rather than coming between patients and information, intermediaries now stand by and provide added value by steering patients to high quality information.

• Apomediaries’ presence as sensegiversinfluences the decision making of patient-consumers by reinforcing the effective decision making.

• Provided that apomediaries are considered as credible by information-seekers, their opinions -in form of rating, critique, or personal experience – give sense to patient-consumers, enabling them to make better informed and satisfying decisions about the health care products or services that are available to them.

Empowerment –decreased reliance on

experts

• Knowledge• Self-efficacy• Autonomy

Apomediationreplacing the intermediary

Success

Intermediary Failure

Dynamic disintermediation/apomediation model (from Eysenbach, 2007)