An Action Design Research to Facilitate the Adoption of Personal Health Records: The Case of Digital Allergy Cards

Adoption and user perceptions are dominant on personal health records literature and have led to a better understanding of what individuals' behaviors and perceptions are about the adoption of personal health records. However, these insights are descriptive and are not actionable to allow creating personal health records that will overcome the adoption problems identified by users. This study uses action design research to provide actionable knowledge regarding user perceptions and adoption and their application in the case of the digital allergy card. To achieve this, the authors conducted interviews with patients and physicians as part of the evaluation of the digital allergy card mock-up and the first prototype. As results, they provided some research proposals regarding the benefits of, levers for, and barriers to adoption of the digital allergy card that can be tested for several other personal health records.