Patient Empowerment

This book examines how patient empowerment based on Internet information has impact on health care processes and patient ¿ physician relationship. The process of empowerment is analyzed in three main steps; searching and obtaining information; sharing and discussing obtained information with providers; and involving decision making process. Study domain covers with breast cancer patients continuing their treatment in hospitals. In-depth interview methodology has been employed. Interviews are conducted in two settings: one is a university hospital; other is a state hospital of Ministry of Health. Sample size was 20 patients and 6 doctors. As result of study we observed that most of the breast cancer patients have low level of empowerment. This is mainly caused by perception of cancer and high level of anxiety of patients.