How Can Value be Co-created Through Mobile Applications for Disease Management?

The study focuses on mobile health applications that offer chronic disease management and telehealth solutions. These applications aim to help increase patients’ compliance through value co-creation that requires customer participation. This article explores which mobile application-related and person-related attributes of digital health applications influence value co-creation and patients’ continuous usage intention. Adopting a value co-creation (VCC) perspective differs from the literature, primarily focusing on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), extended TAM or Innovation Diffusion Theory. This study employs a qualitative research design and explores the views of multiple sclerosis patients in Türkiye through 15 in-depth interviews. Focusing on these patients is imperative, as they need more frequent patient monitoring and close treatment follow-up, for which such digital healthcare applications are designed. The findings reveal that, contrary to technology adoption literature, addressing patients’ emotional needs is critical. Thus, the importance of person-related benefits is as significant as the functional features of the applications, including mobility, personalization/customization, relative advantage, perceived usefulness, complexity, security risk and privacy. Therefore, such applications should promote recognition, personalization, empathy and support, including clear consent mechanisms, transparent data policies and personalized content delivery that conveys respect and empathy. Incorporating empathetic language, personalized feedback and human-like interfaces may foster VCC behaviour. This study also underscores the importance of designing simpler, more user-friendly digital tools for less tech-savvy older users.