Consumer Health Informatics

Consumer health informatics is a relatively new discipline and has been defined by Eysenbach as follows:

Consumer health informatics is the branch of medical informatics that analyses consumers’ needs for information; studies and implements methods of making information accessible to consumers; and models and integrates consumers’ preferences into medical information systems. (Eysenbach 2000)

Consumer health informatics provides patients and healthy consumers with the tools, skills and support they need to better manage their health decisions. Examples for CHI tools are websites providing self-care information, Internet-based disease management tools, telemedicine, web-based electronic health records, etc. In the age of the Internet almost any health information system or communication tool now gets an interface for consumers.

Healthcare providers are turning to consumer health informatics to provide patients not only with health advice but with an opportunity to manage certain aspects of their condition by building their own patient records.

This can be done using methods ranging from using pen and paper through using the telephone to acquire information to the using of software on a patient’s personal computer that allows them to manage their records and observations through a private website.

References

• Eysenbach G. Recent Advances: Consumer Health Informatics. BMJ 2000; 320: 1713–16
• Lewis D, Eysenbach G et al. Consumer Health Informatics. Springer 2005 (ISBN: 038723991X)
• National Library of Medicine.; National Institutes of Health. [WWW] 3RD July 2003. Consumer Health Informatics Research. http://lhncbc.nlm.nih.gov/cgsb/research/chr/ (30TH July 2003).
• Simpson, Louise.; Robinson, Paul.; e-Clinical Governance. Radcliffe Medical Press (Oxford). 2002.

External links

• Biohealthmatics.com
• Journal of Medical Internet Research (publishes leading Consumer Health Informatics research)