Consumer Health Informatics and Digital Health
Consumer health informatics and digital health is the branch of health informatics concerned with information and communication technologies designed for, and used directly by, patients and the public rather than by clinicians or administrators. It spans patient portals, personal health records, mobile health applications and wearables, telehealth, online health information, and the literacy and engagement that determine whether these tools help people manage their health.
Definition
Consumer health informatics is the field that analyses consumers' needs for information, studies and implements methods for making information accessible to consumers, and models and integrates consumers' preferences into health information systems; digital health is the broader use of information and communication technologies to support health, including consumer-facing applications, telehealth, and connected devices.
Scope
This area orients the reader to the consumer-facing side of health information technology: the design and evaluation of tools that put health data and services in the hands of patients and caregivers. It links to the detailed topic entries on patient portals and personal health records, mobile and wearable health technology, telehealth, the quality of consumer health information, and health literacy. It is a reference and educational overview, not clinical or product guidance.
Sub-topics
Core questions
- How can health information and services be designed so that patients and the public can use them effectively?
- When do consumer-facing digital tools improve health knowledge, behaviour, or outcomes, and when do they not?
- How do health literacy, access, and trust shape who benefits from digital health?
- How is the quality and safety of consumer health information and applications evaluated?
Key concepts
- Consumer health informatics
- Digital health and eHealth
- Patient engagement and activation
- Patient-generated health data
- Telehealth and remote care
- Health literacy and eHealth literacy
- Digital divide and equity of access
Mechanisms
Consumer-facing health technologies work by moving information and interaction across the boundary between health systems and the people they serve. Portals and personal health records expose clinical data to patients; mobile applications and wearables capture patient-generated data and deliver feedback or behaviour-change support; telehealth substitutes or supplements in-person encounters with remote communication. The benefit of any of these depends not only on the technology but on the user's health literacy, access to connectivity, and trust, so the field studies the socio-technical fit between tools and the populations using them.
Clinical relevance
Consumer health informatics describes the tools through which patients increasingly access records, communicate with clinicians, monitor conditions, and seek health information. Understanding how these tools are designed and evaluated is part of appraising modern care delivery and patient participation. This entry is descriptive and educational; it characterises a field of study and does not provide diagnostic or treatment guidance.
Evidence & guidelines
Evidence on consumer health informatics is heterogeneous and tool-specific: systematic reviews report benefits for some Internet- and mobile-based interventions while underscoring variable effect sizes and quality, and narrative reviews trace the rapid expansion of telehealth and data-driven health care. Eysenbach's foundational account framed the field, and later reviews map its constituent technologies; readers are directed to the individual topic entries for the evidence relevant to each tool.
History
Consumer health informatics emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s as the Internet made health information and services directly available to the public, building on earlier ideas about patient-centred computing. Eysenbach's 2000 BMJ review consolidated the field's identity. Over the following two decades the spread of smartphones, wearables, broadband, and large-scale health data extended the field into mobile health and digital health, and the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of telehealth and remote care.
Debates
- Does digital health widen or narrow health inequities?
- Consumer-facing tools can extend access and self-management, but they also risk excluding people with limited connectivity, devices, or digital and health literacy, so whether digital health reduces or amplifies disparities is contested and context-dependent.
Key figures
- Gunther Eysenbach
- Eric Topol
- Warner Slack
Related topics
Seminal works
- eysenbach-2000
- dorsey-topol-2016
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between consumer health informatics and digital health?
- Consumer health informatics is specifically about information systems designed for and used by patients and the public, while digital health is a broader umbrella for using information and communication technologies to support health, of which consumer-facing tools are one part.
- Why does health literacy matter in this area?
- Because consumer-facing tools require people to find, understand, and act on health information; differences in health and digital literacy strongly influence who actually benefits from these technologies.