Comparison of Patient Empowerment Frameworks

Frameworks offer opportunities for better understanding of the efficacy of patient empowerment. However, some of these frameworks appear to be constituted in different ways by professional body involved in healthcare and research. Through review of existing frameworks and an articulation of patient demands, weaknesses in current structures to support empowerment are explored, and distinction between the frameworks, as well as key constituents of a framework for patient empowerment are determined. Approaches to frameworks aiming at patient empowerment in the ehealth system vary in the dominant motif within the construct. Health centred, patient centred, provider centred, technology centred, and hybrid models are the most common categories of empowerment framework. Current patient empowerment frameworks are complementary concepts, which do not oppose one another but there exist a clear distinction between them.