ABSTRACT
Virtual Communities (VC) can be defined as a group of people who gather because of a common interest, problem, or task and whose members are independent of time and space for interacting (for similar definitions see Armstrong & Hagel, 1996; Mynatt, Adler, Ito, & O’Day, 1997; Preece, 2000; Schubert, 1999). Therefore, virtual communities have great potential to serve ubiquitous needs. Such an omnipresent problem situation exists for instance in health care, when patients develop a desire for information and communication that exceeds the resources of the treating physician. From the characterization of virtual health care communities as ubiquitous information and interaction spaces, we have derived design requirements for VCs as well as for the process of developing a community platform. The results are transferred into the health care domain, particularly into the situation of cancer patients. On this basis, we give an overview of our experiences with the development of a community platform for cancer patients. In closing, we put special emphasis on the possibilities and challenges of mobile technologies for virtual health care communities.
