Exploring Complementarity of Professional Information and Online Health Communities in an Application

This paper explores a possible way to complement expert information from the healthcare professional with information from online communities. Patient Journey, used by clubfoot patients in this case, is an existing mobile application with both information from health professionals as well as an added community aspect. In this paper it is explored how information of the online health community can complement with the information provided by the healthcare professionals. In the research it was seen that this potentially created more structure for the patients. Next to this, the complementary sources of information could potentially support patients in asking more specific questions. In future research, it can be assessed if the integration of the online community helps to increase information utility.