Consumer Health

According to the Pew Foundation’s "Internet in American Life Study," over 60 million Americans per year use the Internet to search for health information. All those concerned with healthcare and how to obtain personally relevant medical information form a large additional target group Many Medical Informatics programs–both in the United States and abroad–include a course in Consumer Health Informatics as part of their curriculum. This book, designed for use in a classroom, will be the first textbook dedicated solely to the specific concerns of consumer health informatics Consumer Health Informatics is an interactive text; filled with case studies and discussion questions With international authorship and edited by five leaders in the field, Consumer Health Informatics has tapped some of the best resources in informatics today

Consumer Health Information Programs and Services: Best Practices presents examples of successful and long-standing library programs and services that provide health information to consumers—the general public, patients, and families or patients – who seek information about health and diseases. This best practices volume brings together library programs and services currently offered in hospital libraries, public libraries, academic health sciences libraries, and standalone consumer health libraries, covering a range of topics and special programs.

This unique collection synthesizes insights and evidence from innovators in consumer informatics and highlights the technical, behavioral, social, and policy issues driving digital health today and in the foreseeable future. Consumer Informatics and Digital Health presents the fundamentals of mobile health, reviews the evidence for consumer technology as a driver of health behavior change, and examines user experience and real-world technology design challenges and successes. Additionally, it identifies key considerations for successfully engaging consumers in their own care, considers the ethics of using personal health information in research, and outlines implications for health system redesign. The editors’ integrative systems approach heralds a future of technological advances tempered by best practices drawn from today’s critical policy goals of patient engagement, community health promotion, and health equity. Here’s the inside view of consumer health informatics and key digital fields that students and professionals will find inspiring, informative, and thought-provoking. Included among the topics: • Healthcare social media for consumer informatics • Understanding usability, accessibility, and human-centered design principles • Understanding the fundamentals of design for motivation and behavior change • Digital tools for parents: innovations in pediatric urgent care • Behavioral medicine and informatics in the cancer community • Content strategy: writing for health consumers on the web • Open science and the future of data analytics • Digital approaches to engage consumers in value-based purchasing Consumer Informatics and Digital Health takes an expansive view of the fields influencing consumer informatics and offers practical case-based guidance for a broad range of audiences, including students, educators, researchers, journalists, and policymakers interested in biomedical informatics, mobile health, information science, and population health. It has as much to offer readers in clinical fields such as medicine, nursing, and psychology as it does to those engaged in digital pursuits.

Consumer Health: Making Informed Decisions is a concise, current text with the most up-to-date information about health care reform and insurance. It is devoted to the most important issues relative to consumer health issues, including advertising, dietary supplements, herbal remedies, weight management, and medications. There are in-depth analyses of the American health care system, insurance options, and consumer protection. The text also takes a critical look at complementary and alternative therapies. Throughout the text, there are guidelines for making decisions that can benefit the individual. A comprehensive list of learning objectives precede each chapter and a list of study questions conclude each chapter. The questions are designed to help the student summarize the major points of the chapter, prepare for exams, and critically analyze the material contained in the chapters. Instructor Resources: PowerPoint Presentations

The Medical Library Association Guide to Developing Consumer Health Collections guides both library graduate school students and seasoned librarians from academic, health sciences, and public libraries, to develop, maintain, nurture, and advertise consumer health collections. This authoritative guide from the respected Medical Library Association covers all that is involved in developing a new consumer health library including: Conducting community needs assessments and forging community partnerships Concerns about physical space, computers, and materials Funding, budgeting, and staffing Privacy and confidentiality concerns Publicity and advertising This book guides both graduate library school students and seasoned librarians from all types of libraries—academic, health center, hospital, public, and school--to develop, maintain and nurture not only consumer health collections, but also community partnerships and outreach programs. Examples of librarians’ innovative and creative consumer health initiatives are included. Chapters include all that is involved in developing a consumer health collection including conducting community needs assessments; concerns about physical space, computers, and materials; budgeting, licensing, and staffing; privacy and confidentiality concerns; and community partnership and outreach.

"An engaging introduction to an exciting multidisciplinary field where positive impact depends less on technology than on understanding and responding to human motivations, specific information needs, and life constraints." -- Betsy L. Humphreys, former Deputy Director, National Library of Medicine This is a book for people who want to design or promote information technology that helps people be more active and informed participants in their healthcare. Topics include patient portals, wearable devices, apps, websites, smart homes, and online communities focused on health. Consumer Healthcare Informatics: Enabling Digital Health for Everyone educates readers in the core concepts of consumer health informatics: participatory healthcare; health and e-health literacy; user-centered design; information retrieval and trusted information resources; and the ethical dimensions of health information and communication technologies. It presents the current state of knowledge and recent developments in the field of consumer health informatics. The discussions address tailoring information to key user groups, including patients, consumers, caregivers, parents, children and young adults, and older adults. For example, apps are considered as not just a rich consumer technology with the promise of empowered personal data management and connectedness to community and healthcare providers, but also a domain rife with concerns for effectiveness, privacy, and security, requiring both designer and user to engage in critical thinking around their choices. This book’s unique contribution to the field is its focus on the consumer and patient in the context of their everyday life outside the clinical setting. Discussion of tools and technologies is grounded in this perspective and in a context of real-world use and its implications for design. There is an emphasis on empowerment through participatory and people-centered care.

Today, being a health consumer encompasses more than being knowledgeable about traditional medicine and health practice but also includes the necessity to be well informed about the expading field of complementary and alternative medicine. Consumer Health and Integrative Medicine: Holistic View of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Practices, Second Edition was written to expand upon the many alternative modalities that many other consumer health texts overlook. It includes chapters on the major alternative medicine systems and healing modalities, including Ayurvedic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, naturopathy, homeopathic medicine, chiropractic medicine, massage, reflexology, and herbals or botanicals. The authors mission is to increase reader's knowledge base, not make up their mind, as we all make better choices related to our own personal health care practices when we are informed consumers.

Guide for librarian to help patrons find answers to health questions.