BMI 6730 - Consumer Health Informatics

Consumer Health Informatics (CHI) is the branch of Medical Informatics that analyzes consumer's needs for health information; studies and implements methods and tools for making information accessible to consumers; and models and integrates consumers' preferences into medical information systems. In this course we will examine various tools in use today, such as web sites providing health information, internet-based disease management tools, telemedicine and patient-provider communication, personal health records, and health-related electronic services. We'll discuss issues important to CHI, such as technology, barriers to implementation, security and confidentiality, evaluation, human-computer interaction, and theories of information seeking behavior. We'll review important new governmental policies and directions that are relevant to CHI. We'll also discuss how CHI integrates with the Clinical, Translational and Public Health Informatics tracks, and present research possibilities in the field.