Abstract
The rise of digital health technologies has reshaped the patient’s role in healthcare, enabling greater autonomy in managing health and making medical decisions. Self-diagnosis tools, including AI-driven applications, symptom checkers, and online health platforms, allow individuals to assess symptoms and explore potential conditions before consulting a healthcare professional. While these tools offer increased access to health information, they also raise concerns about misinformation, misinterpretation, and their impact on patient-provider relationships. This study examines how both patients and healthcare professionals perceive self-diagnosis, identifying tension points and shared concerns that shape its role in healthcare interactions. To explore these perspectives, we conducted two online surveys: one with 330 patients and another with 36 doctors. The findings contribute to design research by providing insights into how digital health technologies can be designed to facilitate shared decision-making, strengthen patient-provider relationships, and ensure responsible integration into healthcare practices.
Keywords
self-diagnosis; patient-doctor interaction; digital health tools; collaborative healthcare
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2025.36
Citation
Ugras, M.D., Sen, G.,and Gunay, A.(2025) Rethinking self-diagnosis: Bridging doctor and patient perspectives, in Brandt, E., Markussen, T., Berglund, E., Julier, G., Linde, P. (eds.), Nordes 2025: Relational Design, 6-8 August, Oslo, Norway. https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2025.36
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Full Papers
Included in
Rethinking self-diagnosis: Bridging doctor and patient perspectives
The rise of digital health technologies has reshaped the patient’s role in healthcare, enabling greater autonomy in managing health and making medical decisions. Self-diagnosis tools, including AI-driven applications, symptom checkers, and online health platforms, allow individuals to assess symptoms and explore potential conditions before consulting a healthcare professional. While these tools offer increased access to health information, they also raise concerns about misinformation, misinterpretation, and their impact on patient-provider relationships. This study examines how both patients and healthcare professionals perceive self-diagnosis, identifying tension points and shared concerns that shape its role in healthcare interactions. To explore these perspectives, we conducted two online surveys: one with 330 patients and another with 36 doctors. The findings contribute to design research by providing insights into how digital health technologies can be designed to facilitate shared decision-making, strengthen patient-provider relationships, and ensure responsible integration into healthcare practices.