Consumer health informatics in the information age and beyond
- Authors: Pottas, Dalenca
- Subjects: Medical informatics , Information technology , f-sa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Lectures
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/20757 , vital:29386
- Description: This paper reviews current and future trends and challenges in the field of consumer health informatics. Emergent innovations driving consumer health informatics in the information age include devices, tools and applications supporting personalised healthcare, electronic personal health record (PHR) systems and a plethora of tools in the health social media domain. Within this domain, a new kind of social media citizen, the consumer specialist or patient opinion leader, is taking the lead in online communities of patients. A new generation of personal health records combining PHRs and social media is emerging, even though pervasive adoption and use of PHRs remains elusive. The accuracy of information, security and privacy of personal health information, legislative matters and the digital divide remain recurring challenges of consumer health informatics. In future, PHR vendors will have to address the lack of espousal of PHRs in innovative ways to provide a compelling case for adoption. The continued uptake of health social media necessitates efforts to understand, through longitudinal studies, precisely who the users are, what they use it for and how it contributes to the achievement of both personal and public health outcomes. Health information consumers, of varying levels of techno-literacy, needs and preferences, must be assisted to move from simply accessing information to distilling relevant and credible information and making informed decisions. Further research is required to understand the changing relationships between patients and healthcare providers and how consumer health information technologies can best support these. There is a need to evaluate the effectiveness of consumer health information technologies to inform both public policy and the next generation of tools, technologies and artefacts that could better facilitate improved health outcomes. Lastly, more effort is required to erode digital inequalities. As we move into a future emphasising both the global and the individual, accelerated connectedness and speed of change, consumer health informatics must respond such that it remains germane and amplifies the value that can be gained by all stakeholders.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Pottas, Dalenca
- Subjects: Medical informatics , Information technology , f-sa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Lectures
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/20757 , vital:29386
- Description: This paper reviews current and future trends and challenges in the field of consumer health informatics. Emergent innovations driving consumer health informatics in the information age include devices, tools and applications supporting personalised healthcare, electronic personal health record (PHR) systems and a plethora of tools in the health social media domain. Within this domain, a new kind of social media citizen, the consumer specialist or patient opinion leader, is taking the lead in online communities of patients. A new generation of personal health records combining PHRs and social media is emerging, even though pervasive adoption and use of PHRs remains elusive. The accuracy of information, security and privacy of personal health information, legislative matters and the digital divide remain recurring challenges of consumer health informatics. In future, PHR vendors will have to address the lack of espousal of PHRs in innovative ways to provide a compelling case for adoption. The continued uptake of health social media necessitates efforts to understand, through longitudinal studies, precisely who the users are, what they use it for and how it contributes to the achievement of both personal and public health outcomes. Health information consumers, of varying levels of techno-literacy, needs and preferences, must be assisted to move from simply accessing information to distilling relevant and credible information and making informed decisions. Further research is required to understand the changing relationships between patients and healthcare providers and how consumer health information technologies can best support these. There is a need to evaluate the effectiveness of consumer health information technologies to inform both public policy and the next generation of tools, technologies and artefacts that could better facilitate improved health outcomes. Lastly, more effort is required to erode digital inequalities. As we move into a future emphasising both the global and the individual, accelerated connectedness and speed of change, consumer health informatics must respond such that it remains germane and amplifies the value that can be gained by all stakeholders.
- Full Text:
ICT as an enabler of Socio Economic Development
- Authors: Van Greunen, Darrelle
- Subjects: Information technology , Digital divide , f-sa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Lectures
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/20725 , vital:29383
- Description: Today’s is a world of many divides, one of the most typical being the Digital Divide, which in itself has given birth to or is worsening other economic and social divides. In this world, more suffer and less are able to benefit from technology. This paper aims to promote the importance of and need for inter-disciplinary cooperation for the use and promotion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as a bridge for the Digital Divide within disciplines. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) include any communication device—radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems, the services and applications associated with them, such as the Internet, geographic positioning systems (GPS), banking, e-health, e-learning and electronic government services. The paper will touch on tangible examples of inter-disciplinary cooperation and the use of ICT in different community interventions.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Van Greunen, Darrelle
- Subjects: Information technology , Digital divide , f-sa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Lectures
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/20725 , vital:29383
- Description: Today’s is a world of many divides, one of the most typical being the Digital Divide, which in itself has given birth to or is worsening other economic and social divides. In this world, more suffer and less are able to benefit from technology. This paper aims to promote the importance of and need for inter-disciplinary cooperation for the use and promotion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as a bridge for the Digital Divide within disciplines. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) include any communication device—radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems, the services and applications associated with them, such as the Internet, geographic positioning systems (GPS), banking, e-health, e-learning and electronic government services. The paper will touch on tangible examples of inter-disciplinary cooperation and the use of ICT in different community interventions.
- Full Text:
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