Paper Number
ECIS2026-1884
Paper Type
CRP
Abstract
Remote patient monitoring (RPM) technologies fundamentally transform chronic disease management by extending clinical care into informal patient-caregiver relationships. Albeit of utmost importance for positive health outcomes, understanding of how continuous data sharing shapes relationships between patients and their informal caregivers is limited. Adopting a phenomenon-driven, qualitative design, we draw on concepts grounded in compassion literature to analyze interviews with patients, caregivers, and RPM manufacturers, complemented by a qualitative survey. Our analysis shows that real-time monitoring reconfigures compassion in patient-caregiver dyads, producing continuous, data-driven engagement that both supports patients and generates boundary crossing. We theorize these dynamics as monitoring-mediated compassion and develop a process model as well as propositions. Thus, we show how using RPM shapes the externalization of suffering, empathy, and sense-making, ultimately leading to caregivers crossing relational boundaries. The study advances health information systems by repositioning RPM as a socio-technical infrastructure that materially reshapes informal caregiving.
Recommended Citation
Detels, Laura Madeleine; Adam, Martin; and Trenz, Manuel, "Monitoring-Mediated Compassion: How Real-Time Monitoring Reconfigures Patient-Caregiver Relationships" (2026). ECIS 2026 Proceedings. 8.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2026/hit/hit/8
Monitoring-Mediated Compassion: How Real-Time Monitoring Reconfigures Patient-Caregiver Relationships
Remote patient monitoring (RPM) technologies fundamentally transform chronic disease management by extending clinical care into informal patient-caregiver relationships. Albeit of utmost importance for positive health outcomes, understanding of how continuous data sharing shapes relationships between patients and their informal caregivers is limited. Adopting a phenomenon-driven, qualitative design, we draw on concepts grounded in compassion literature to analyze interviews with patients, caregivers, and RPM manufacturers, complemented by a qualitative survey. Our analysis shows that real-time monitoring reconfigures compassion in patient-caregiver dyads, producing continuous, data-driven engagement that both supports patients and generates boundary crossing. We theorize these dynamics as monitoring-mediated compassion and develop a process model as well as propositions. Thus, we show how using RPM shapes the externalization of suffering, empathy, and sense-making, ultimately leading to caregivers crossing relational boundaries. The study advances health information systems by repositioning RPM as a socio-technical infrastructure that materially reshapes informal caregiving.