title: Provider-sponsored virtual communities for chronic patients: improving health outcomes through organizational patient-centred knowledge management.
abstract: Patients with long-term chronic disease experience numerous illness patterns and disease trends over time, resulting in different sets of knowledge needs than patients who intermittently seek medical care for acute or short-term problems. Health-care organizations can promote knowledge creation and utilization by chronic patients through the introduction of a virtual, private, disease-specific patient community. This virtual socialization alters the role of chronic disease patients from external consumers of health-care services to a 'community of practice' of internal customers so that, with the tacit support of their health-care organization, they have a forum supporting the integration of knowledge gained from the experiences of living with chronic disease in their self-management. Patient-centred health-care organizations can employ the virtual community to direct and support the empowerment of chronic patients in their care.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. w.winkelman@utoronto.ca
authors.forename: Warren J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Winkelman
authors.forename: Chun Wei
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Choo
mesh_terms: D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services; D020407:Internet; D009656:North America; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D010358:Patient Participation; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012648:Self Care; D012657:Self-Help Groups