This article reports on the formative evaluation of WebPEP (“Web-Based Patient Education Program”), an interactive video education project at ErasmusMC–Sophia Children’s Hospital (SCH) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Through monthly live webcasts, doctors, nurses, psychologists, and other healthcare professionals affiliated to SCH’s Cystic Fibrosis Team gave presentations on medical and psychosocial aspects related to cystic fibrosis (CF). These w ebcasts w ere first intended to educate and be educational to children betw een the ages of tw elve and eighteen, but during the first year of the project they failed to attract this specific group. Instead, they generated unexpected enthusiasm among parents of young patients. The central question in this article is: How w ere patients “integrated” in the development of the WebPEP application? We show how the project’s initiator reacted to the lacking participation by prospective users: informed by the evaluation, he gradually shifted his attention from live interaction to the expansion of the video library, w here the w ebcasts were stored for on demand view ing. Based on interview s and participant observations, we describe how the initiator reconfigured the WebPEP application and its users, and therew ith reframed the CF Centre’s online patient education strategy. We discuss the importance of investigating the prospective and actual use of patient-centered e-health (PCEH) applications, and argue that a single technological artefact can be involved in different, coexisting practices of patient-centeredness. We conclude w ith a reflection on how formative research methods can contribute to the development of PCEH.

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hdl.handle.net/1765/51032
Communications of the Association for Information Systems
Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM)

Aspria, M., de Mul, M., Adams, S., & Bal, R. (2014). Intergrating users in an interactive video education project: reframing the patient-centered strategy of a cystic fibrosis centre. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 34(23), 439–453. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/51032