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Consumer Health Informatics

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Synonyms

Consumer health; Patient health/engagement; Personal health informatics

Definition

Consumer health informatics (CHI), a specialty field of health informatics, focuses on education, practice, research, and policy specifically for the health consumer.

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Introduction

In the last decade, there has been an increased focus on consumer or patient engagement and empowerment in healthcare. As consumers are taking a more active role in their care, health information technology (HIT), specifically consumer-directed technologies, is being used to enable ability to communicate, share information, and collaborate across health settings (Lai et al. 2017). Patients with access to consumer-focused technologies can also increase access to care, allow more control of over their health information, possibly reduce barriers to care, and assist in self-management behaviors (Knight and Shea 2014). Consumer health informatics (CHI), a specialty field of health informatics, focuses on...

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Correspondence to Robin Austin .

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© 2019 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

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Austin, R. (2019). Consumer Health Informatics. In: Gellman, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_102006-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_102006-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6439-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6439-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference MedicineReference Module Medicine

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