Personal Health Informatics

This book clarifies consumer and personal health informatics and their relevance to precision medicine and healthcare applications. Personal Health Informatics covers a broad definition of this emerging field, with individuals not simply consuming health but as active participants, researchers and designers in the healthcare ecosystem. The world of health informatics is constantly changing given the ever-increasing variety and volume of health data, care delivery models that shift from fee-for-service to value-based care, new entrants in the ecosystem and the evolving regulatory decision landscape. These changes have increased the importance of the role of patients in research studies for understanding work processes and activities, and the design and implementation of health information systems. Therefore, personal health informatics now provide research tools and protocols to engage within individual contexts when developing solutions, which can improve clinical practice, patient engagement and public health.

Personal Health Informatics offers a snapshot of this emerging field, supported by the methodological, practical, legal and ethical perspectives of researchers and practitioners. In addition to being a research reader, this book provides pragmatic insights for practitioners in designing, implementing and evaluating personal health informatics in healthcare settings. It represents an excellent reader for students in all clinical disciplines and biomedical and health informatics to learn from the case studies provided in this emerging field.