A Framework for Stakeholder Involvement in eHealth Action Research

The involvement of stakeholder groups, like patients or healthcare professionals, is highly valued in eHealth Action Research (AR) projects because it ensures a match between the project outcomes and the needs of the target group. However, few best practices or advices are available and no overview exists that describes the process of active involvement of stakeholders in the context of eHealth. Therefore, this paper presents the development of a framework for active stakeholder involvement in eHealth AR. The framework was developed based on several studies on stakeholder involvement in a project, as well as existing literature. To evaluate the framework, interviews were conducted with eight participants, who were either experts from the field or researchers currently working in practice in eHealth AR projects. Based on the suggestions made during the interviews, the framework was adjusted. The final version of the framework consists of 9 sections with a total of 56 questions, as well as material for additional reading. This framework can help researchers, especially those who are relatively new to AR and stakeholder involvement, shape their research process. A next step would be to further investigate how to operationalise the framework, for example in project meetings with stakeholders, and then, evaluate the framework in practice by implementation into an AR project from start to finish.