Design speaks Improving patient-centeredness for older people in a digitalizing healthcare context

Over the last decades eHealth technologies gained traction among autonomous (younger) patients coinciding with their increasing (smart) technology use. This paved the way for a growth in development of eHealth, specifically of mHealth and patient portals, two main eHealth domains examined in this thesis. Besides the younger adopters of eHealth, eHealth technologies have the potential to place a large group of older patients at the center of care through sharing their medical data with them and digitally tailoring care to their individual information needs. Despite eHealth’s benefits for these older patients, especially chronically ill patients, adoption of eHealth by older patients is low. The evidence from this thesis shows that aging barriers inhibit interaction and adoption of these technologies by older patients, yet, their willingness to use such services is growing. It thus seems to be the right momentum stimulate continuous use of eHealth by this large potential older user group. The data in this thesis highlights the importance of designs that optimally support older users’ interactions and communication, of interfaces as well as functionalities. Thereby, this thesis contributes to our understanding of usability and contextual influences of eHealth adoption by older patients.