Consumer Health Informatics
Consumer Health Informatics (CHI) is a branch of medical informatics and deals with the investigation of consumer-oriented e-health services. The focus is on the idea of making electronic health resources accessible to laypeople. These CHI analyzes the information needs of users and examined ways information user-customized accessible.
definition
A large number of definitions can be found in the literature. The American Medical Informatics Association defines CHI as "the field of work that is dedicated to informatics from different consumer and patient perspectives". For the CHI working group of the IMIA ( International Medical Informatics Association ), CHI is the "use of modern computers and telecommunications to help consumers with information acquisition, the analysis of individual health needs and health-related decision support". If one looks at the definitions of the term Consumer Health Informatics, which Flaherty, Hoffman-Goetz and Arocha extracted from the literature in their Systematic Review, it is noticeable that they are primarily devoted to answering four questions:
- who
- provides whom
- what service
- for what purpose available?
Consumer focus
In general, it is noticeable in the overview of definitions that medical laypeople such as patients or healthy citizens are addressed as a target group to whom "systems" are made available with or without the presence of a medical professional. In the CHI environment, telemedicine applications , in which patients, doctors and other service providers work together via telecommunications , and e-health services that medical laypeople use without the participation of doctors play a role . In this context, mobile health services in the sense of mHealth should be mentioned, which include apps, for example.
In terms of consumer health informatics, not only classic health information offers on the Internet are considered, but also Web 2.0 applications that actively involve the user. In this context, the term Health 2.0 also plays a role, which means the integration of the patient in health care.
The objectives of consumer-oriented, electronic health services are diverse and include patient empowerment and the increase in consumer competence in medical terms, in order to make them informed partners in the medical decision-making process ( participatory decision-making ). The preferences of the consumers should be taken into account through the possibility of individualization. Ultimately, the goal is to achieve better public health outcomes in societies.
CHI deals with patient-centered information - it is important that patients are able to control their own health with the help of electronic resources. In this context, consumer e-health literacy is important. The concept of e-health literacy comprises six types of competencies that are necessary for individuals to use electronic health resources:
- Traditional Literacy: The ability to read and write texts and understand numbers. Consumer-oriented health applications should therefore e.g. B. pay attention to an appropriate language level for the intended user.
- Information literacy : the ability to apply information received.
- Scientific Literacy : Basic scientific education
- Health literacy : The ability to find, read, understand, and use health information to make appropriate health decisions
- Media literacy : The ability to understand media, e.g. B. To judge sources according to trustworthiness
- Computer literacy : The ability to understand hardware and software and use them sensibly.
CHI also includes technologies that focus on the patient as the "primary user" of the healthcare system. Information sources, communication, video conferencing and much more are taken into account. After the development of applications for medical professionals over the years, there is now increasing interest in addressing patients directly via computers and telecommunications. CHI is therefore at the crossroads of many scientific fields of work and is therefore possibly the most complex and fastest growing branch of medical informatics. This is underlined by growth rates of up to several hundred percent in the past decade (2004–2013) in the medical literature and the appearance of CHI textbooks.
CHI is paving the way into the information age for citizens with their health concerns . One of the current challenges is to open up a defined place for CHI as a new form of health care . In analogy to new therapies, the effectiveness of consumer health informatics services must be proven in studies and an ethical discussion about the recognizable benefits as well as the remaining risks of harm must be conducted. If there is a consensus on a clearly predominant benefit, the CHI services must be identified as billable services via the self-administration of the health system ( Federal Joint Committee ).
Neighboring areas
CHI currently stands between many health-related fields such as nursing and nursing informatics , ambient assisted living , quantified self, but also health promotion and training.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b D. Flaherty, L. Hoffman-Goetz, JF Arocha: What is consumer health informatics? A systematic review of published definitions. In: Informatics for health & social care. Volume 40, number 2, March 2015, pp. 91-112, doi : 10.3109 / 17538157.2014.907804 , PMID 24801616 (review).
- ↑ CHI definition of AMIA on amia.org
- ↑ CHI definition of IMIA ( memento of the original from March 7, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on imia-medinfo.org
- ^ EHealth Literacy: Essential Skills for Consumer Health in a Networked World
- ^ R. Nelson and MJ Ball (eds.). Consumer Informatics - Applications and Strategies in Cyber Health Care. New York (Springer) 2004
- ↑ T. Weather. Consumer Health Informatics - New Services, Roles and Responsibilities; Heidelberg (Springer) 2015
