Public Health and Consumer Uses of Health Information: Education, Research, Policy, Prevention, and Quality Assurance

Abstract

Health care in the twenty-first century requires the merging of public and private health concerns. Information technology provides tools that facilitate linking of information about the health of the public with data specific to the care of an individual patient as well as provides clinicians and patients with access to the knowledge that they need to ensure optimum health outcomes. This chapter introduces public health concepts such as “notifiable disease” and “consumer health” and illustrates how maturing computer networks, such as the Internet, make possible a link among public health, medical care, and self-help.