We investigate the motives and activities of individual user innovators in healthcare, focusing on patients of various … diseases. More specifically we investigate the role of patients in the development of new treatments, therapies or medical …, developed by those who intend to use them. In health care, patients are one possible group of user innovators since they expect …

, companies and scholars have paid little attention to the end users of medical devices: patients. We focus on the innovative … behavior of patients and their relatives, their motivations, and their contributions to improving the quality of their own and … ultimately of other patients' therapy. We analyze innovations of producers, healthcare professionals, patients, and relatives in …