CHI Class
Consumer Health Information
Paraprofessional Class 2007
Medical informatics has expanded rapidly over the past
couple of years. After decades of development of information systems designed
primarily for physicians and other healthcare managers and
professionals, there is an increasing interest in reaching consumers
and patients directly through computers and telecommunications systems.
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. Consumer informatics stands at the crossroads of other
disciplines, such as nursing informatics, public health, health
promotion, health education, library science, and communication science,
and is perhaps the most challenging and rapidly expanding field in
medical informatics; it is paving the way for health care in the
information age.
Consumer health informatics is designed to empower
consumers by putting health information into their hands, including information
on their own health, such as diagnoses, lab results, personal risk
factors, and prescribed drugs.
Information technology and consumerism are synergistic
forces that promote an "information age healthcare system"
in which consumers can, ideally, use information technology to gain
access to information and control their own health care, thereby
utilizing healthcare resources more efficiently. Today's
"cyber-docs" on the internet may tomorrow turn into more
trustworthy "cyber-licensed" professionals (who are
specially trained and whose practice is monitored for quality)
counseling patients online.; this development is under way in the
United Kingdom with the introduction of services such as NHS Direct,
which provides advice to patients both on the web and over the phone.
Additionally, intelligent informatics applications can channel the
floods of health information reaching consumers, can help patients
attain a healthy balance between self reliance and seeking
professional help, and can also help balance responsiveness to
consumers and the management of demand, and virtual and face to face
interaction. Information technology and consumer health informatics
are becoming an integral part of modern concepts of public health
and national healthcare policies in many developed countries.
(Source: BMJ 2000;320:1713-1716
( 24 June ) Clinical
review- Recent advances: Consumer
health informatics. Gunther Eysenbach, researcher.
Unit for Cybermedicine, Department of Clinical Social
Medicine,
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/webeval/
CHI Class 12/06
