Consumer Health Informatics Research

Abstract

A branch of scholarship, referred to as consumer health informatics (CHI), has recently developed with the purpose of understanding how consumers use advanced information management and delivery technologies such as the Internet in order to gather and ultimately act on information about health-for themselves or for those they care for. This article describes why this scholarship matters and addresses some areas of CHI research and its immediate impact on consumers. It also discusses the roles of CHI researchers, health information professionals such as librarians, and health information consumers in advancing the interests of patients and consumers as they use the Internet and other information systems in order to manage personal health issues.