Consumer Health Informatics

Healthcare systems generate a huge data collected from medical tests. Data mining is the computing process of discovering patterns in large data sets such as medical examinations. Blood diseases are not an exception; there are many test data can be collected from their patients. In this paper, we applied data mining techniques to discover the relations between blood test characteristics and blood tumor in order to predict the disease in an early stage, which can be used to enhance the curing ability. We conducted experiments in our blood test dataset using three different data mining techniques which are association rules, rule induction and deep learning. The goal of our experiments is to generate models that can distinguish patients with normal blood disease from patients who have blood tumor. We evaluated our results using different metrics applied on real data collected from Gaza European hospital in Palestine. The final results showed that association rules could give us the relationship between blood test characteristics and blood tumor. Also, it demonstrated that deep learning classifiers has the best ability to predict tumor types of blood diseases with an accuracy of 79.45%. Also, rule induction gave us an explanation of rules that describes both tumor in blood and normal hematology.

The purpose of the study is to assess the health interest level of fast food consumers and the effecting factors. To reach this aim, four main hypotheses tested in the study. A questionnaire was formed to collect the data needed to test the hypothesis. The questionnaire was carried out to the 211 fast food consumers at main fast food restaurants in Sakarya/Turkey. Both intentional and convenience sampling methods was used in the study, picking voluntary fast food consumers at the restaurants. The results indicate that, health interest of fast food consumers is at medium-high level (3.36 out of 5). Health interest level of fast food consumers increased in direct proportion to the increase of monthly income level. Also, the more a person visits a fast food restaurant the less her/his health interest level become. It also can be seen from the results that marital and child having situation are both significantly related to the heath interest level of fast food consumers. Thus, accordin...

It is universally acknowledged that nursing profession is guided by both ethic and legal principles as it is the tools for professional discipline which gives the nurse a broad idea of what is expected of her as she moves from the protective ambiance of school into the society. Social changes such as right to healthcare, increasing cost of healthcare and conflicting institutional policies create ethico-legal problems for the nurses. This study is a cross-sectional descriptive study designed to determine knowledge, attitude and practice of nursing ethics and law among nurses at Federal Medical Centre, Bida. A total of 149 questionnaires were administered using simple random sampling technique. The main findings of this study established that the participating nurses possess considerably good knowledge, attitude and practice of nursing ethics and law. Majority (82.6%) of the participants obtained knowledge about ethical dilemma mostly (36%) through seminar/workshops followed by those (31%) who knew about it right from their respective schools of training. Three factors of professional progression in this study; professional qualification (p=.015), years of experience (p=.000) and rank (p=.002) had noticeable effects on knowledge, attitude and practice of nursing ethics and law among the participants. Several options were identified by the participants as remedies to reduce the incidence of ethical and legal issues in their practice area. These include; periodic workshops, adherence to nursing code of ethics, utilization of hospital policy and personal development. Although participants differedon whether providers should adhere to patients' wish at all times,they possess good knowledge on nursing ethics and law. The overall results of the study suggested that there is need for nurses to understand the relationship and limitations between ethics, hospital policy and legal issues as they relate to nursing practice.

Healthcare systems in many developed countries are rapidly approaching a crisis point, due to an aging population, an increase of chronic diseases, healthcare costs consuming an increasing share of the government expenditure, and the dwindling pool of healthcare professionals. One solution to address these challenges is to empower health consumers to better manage their health. Consumer Health Informatics (CHI) applications can enable users to track their health status and to actively participate in treatment regimens and preventive strategies. However, in spite of their immense potential in empowering patient to take charge of their healthcare, many challenges remain in the design and use of CHI applications. In this study, we investigate the barriers that hinder effective usage of CHI applications for health self-management. Results indicate that the primary barriers to self-management via CHI applications resulted from privacy and security concerns and cost. The barriers to self-management identified in this study are amenable to novel CHI applications that could improve health outcomes.

In this paper the authors present the design and development of a counseling system for food or menu planning in a restaurant, clinic/hospital, or at home, the Food-Oriented Ontology-Driven System (FOODS). FOODS comprises (a) a food ontology, (b) an expert system using the ontology, and some knowledge about cooking methods and prices, and (c) a user interface suitable for novices in computers and diets as well as for experts. The ontology contains specifications of ingredients, substances, nutrition facts, recommended daily intakes for different regions, dishes, and menus. The expert system assists in finding the appropriate dish or menu for the consumer, client or customer, who use FOODS by entering their favorite ingredients, ingredients to avoid, favorite flavors, and so on. In the health section users can provide their gender, age, height and weight, which will be used to calculate such data as the body mass index. With FOODS enterprises can assist customers through an appropriate suggestion of dishes and meals with the help of individual nutritional profiles. SMEs that might be interested in using FOODS are institutions for training and instruction of cooking, restaurants, clinics, hospitals, together with clinical and therapeutical dietitians and nutritional therapists. In the long run such systems might become part of the emerging consumer health informatics portfolio.

Background: Clinical coding is an integral part of health information management (HIM) practice which provides
valuable data for healthcare quality evaluation, health resource allocation, health services research, medical billing, public
health programming, Case-Mix/DRG funding. The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health
Problems, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) is a veritable tool for the effectiveness of clinical coding practices. Objective: This present
study determined implementation levels of ICD-10 as well as ICD-10-PCS and clinical coding practices in both public and forprofit
hospitals in Nigeria. Methods: We used Chi square (χ2) and Cramer’s V (φc) to assess the level of association between
type of workplace and implementations of ICD-10 and clinical coding practices. Statistical significance was set at .05. Result:
The study discovered nationwide implementation of ICD-10 (179, 88.2%) and fair adoption of its procedure counterpart (79,
38.9%). Most hospitals in Nigeria especially, for-profit facilities (3, 100%) and tertiary healthcare settings (148, 93.1%)
employed HIM professionals (214, 91.5%) to manage their clinical coding processes. Conversely, the study observed that
challenges confronting clinical coding processes were enormous. Notable among these were absence of automation (70,
34.5%), lack of political will (51, 48.1%), inadequate clinical coders (153, 74.4%) and suboptimal documentation (186, 91.6).
Suggestions to improve clinical coding practices ranges from continuing professional coding education (33, 10.3%) to
initiation of Nigerian’s modification of ICD such that ICD-10 will become ICD-10-NGM (1, 0.3%). Conclusion: Most
healthcare systems in Nigeria have implemented ICD-10 for coding and classification of diagnoses and procedures and the
process is being managed by the right workforce (i.e. HIM professionals) which reassures effectiveness. However, lack of
political will, inadequate and unmotivated workforce and suboptimal clinical documentation were among challenges
confronting the practice in Nigeria. Therefore, this study suggests advocacy and coding education with a view to modifying the
orientation of all stakeholders and to sensitize relevant authorities on the benefits of clinical coding practices in order to
maximize its outcome and in effect, improve public health in the country.
Keywords: Automated Coding, Clinical Coding, Clinical Documentation, Data Quality, Discharge Summary,
Health Information Technology, Health Information Management Professionals, ICD-10

It is universally acknowledged that nursing profession is guided by both ethic and legal principles as it is the tools
for professional discipline which gives the nurse a broad idea of what is expected of her as she moves from the protective
ambiance of school into the society. Social changes such as right to healthcare, increasing cost of healthcare and conflicting
institutional policies create ethico-legal problems for the nurses. This study is a cross-sectional descriptive study designed to
determine knowledge, attitude and practice of nursing ethics and law among nurses at Federal Medical Centre, Bida. A total of
149 questionnaires were administered using simple random sampling technique. The main findings of this study established
that the participating nurses possess considerably good knowledge, attitude and practice of nursing ethics and law. Majority
(82.6%) of the participants obtained knowledge about ethical dilemma mostly (36%) through seminar/workshops followed by
those (31%) who knew about it right from their respective schools of training. Three factors of professional progression in this
study; professional qualification (p=.015), years of experience (p=.000) and rank (p=.002) had noticeable effects on knowledge,
attitude and practice of nursing ethics and law among the participants. Several options were identified by the participants as
remedies to reduce the incidence of ethical and legal issues in their practice area. These include; periodic workshops,
adherence to nursing code of ethics, utilization of hospital policy and personal development. Although participants differedon
whether providers should adhere to patients' wish at all times,they possess good knowledge on nursing ethics and law. The
overall results of the study suggested that there is need for nurses to understand the relationship and limitations between ethics,
hospital policy and legal issues as they relate to nursing practice.
Keywords: Beneficence, Confidentiality, Dilemma, Nursing Code of Ethics, Nurse’s Ordinance, Nursing Practice Act,
Ethico-Legal Issues in Nursing, Patient Safety

Medical informatics has expanded rapidly over the past couple of years. After decades of development of information systems designed primarily for physicians and other healthcare managers and professionals, there is an increasing interest in reaching consumers and patients directly through computers and telecommunications systems. Consumer health informatics is the branch of medical informatics that analyses consumers' needs for information; studies and implements methods of making information accessible to consumers; and models and integrates consumers' preferences into medical information systems. Consumer informatics stands at the crossroads of other disciplines, such as nursing informatics, public health, health promotion, health education, library science, and communication science, and is perhaps the most challenging and rapidly expanding field in medical informatics; it is paving the way for health care in the information age.

To study the effect of an Internet-based personal health record on the empowerment of patients undergoing IVF.Randomized clinical trial.Patients undergoing IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in an academic research environment.We selected patients who were undergoing an IVF or ICSI treatment, have an Internet connection, and speak fluent Dutch.An Internet-based personal health record that provides patients with general and personal information concerning their given treatment and that also provides facilities for communication with fellow patients and physicians.Patient empowerment (measured as a multidimensional concept consisting of self-efficacy, actual and perceived knowledge, and involvement in the decision process), patient satisfaction, meaning of infertility problems, social support, anxiety, and depression.A total of 91 female and 89 male participants were suitable for analysis. No significant differences were observed in per person change in patient empowerment. We did not find any significant differences regarding per person change in patient satisfaction, the meaning of infertility problems, social support, anxiety, and depression.Usage of the personal health record did not have any effects on patient empowerment, but, at the same time, the study did not find that the personal health record had any significant adverse effects either.

The purpose of the study is to assess the health interest level of fast food consumers and the effecting factors. To reach this aim, four main hypotheses tested in the study. A questionnaire was formed to collect the data needed to test the hypothesis. The questionnaire was carried out to the 211 fast food consumers at main fast food restaurants in Sakarya/Turkey. Both intentional and convenience sampling methods was used in the study, picking voluntary fast food consumers at the restaurants. The results indicate that, health interest of fast food consumers is at medium-high level (3.36 out of 5). Health interest level of fast food consumers increased in direct proportion to the increase of monthly income level. Also, the more a person visits a fast food restaurant the less her/his health interest level become. It also can be seen from the results that marital and child having situation are both significantly related to the heath interest level of fast food consumers. Thus, according to the results, all four hypotheses of the study was supported.

Patients evaluate the quality of home health agencies (HHAs) using the Health Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. This paper describes a prototype community health information system to help patients select appropriate and quality HHAs, according to the location, proprietary status, type of service, and year of HHA establishment. Five HCAHPS indicators were selected: " summary rating " , " quality of care " , " professional care " , " communication " , and " recommend agency ". Independent t-test analysis showed that agencies offering Speech Pathology, Medical-Social, or Home Health Aide services, receive significantly worse HCAHPS ratings, while mean ratings vary significantly across different US states. Multiple comparisons with post hoc ANOVA revealed differences between and within HHAs of different proprietary status (p < 0.001): governmental HHAs receiving higher ratings than private HHAs. Finally, there was observed a relationship between all five quality rating variables and the HHA year of establishment (Pearson, p < 0.001). The older the agency is, the better the HCAPS summary ratings. Findings provided the knowledge to design of a consumer health information system, to provide rankings filtered according to user criteria, comparing the quality rankings of eligible HHAs. Users can also see how a specific agency is ranked against eligible HHAs. Ultimately, the system aims to support the patient community with contextually realistic comparisons in an effort to choose optimal HH service.

Background: Accessibility and use of the internet-based health information are vital concepts in healthcare
delivery. The Internet is changing not only the way patients get health information, but the way they interact with their
healthcare providers and others alike. Several studies have explored the use of the Internet by the healthcare providers.
However little is known about the extent to which individual patients use the Internet for their own personal healthcare
information needs. Objective: This present study determined basic IT knowledge, skills and access to internet-based health
information to address personal healthcare needs of the University of Ibadan employees. Methods: This is a cross-sectional
study that deployed multi-stage sampling techniques. Result: Four hundred and two (82.0%) of the 488 questionnaires
distributed were analyzed. There were more (292, 72.6%) non-teaching participants in the study. All (402, 100%) participants
were conversant with internet-based health information which was reported to have met their basic health needs. They all (402,
100%) admitted that internet-based health information could be easily understood, and they mostly sought for it to equip
themselves with prior knowledge on their ailments. However, the majority (398, 97.0%) searched for internet-based health
information because they reported to have lost confidence in their healthcare providers. Conclusion: It is obvious from this
study that most employees of University of Ibadan appreciated the importance of internet-based health information for
personal healthcare and seek it for diverse personal reasons. The outcome of this study has the potentials to prepare healthcare
professionals for dealing appropriately with internet-informed patients and restore their confidence. The Nigerian healthcare
systems need to formulate policies on access and use of internet-based health information by their patients.
Keywords: Academics, Access, Knowledge, Health Information, Internet-Based Health Information, Personal Healthcare,
Use

Patients evaluate the quality of home health agencies (HHAs) using the Health Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. This paper describes a prototype community health information system to help patients select appropriate and quality HHAs, according to the location, proprietary status, type of service, and year of HHA establishment. Five HCAHPS indicators were selected: "summary rating", "quality of care", "professional care", "communication", and "recommend agency". Independent t-test analysis showed that agencies offering Speech Pathology, Medical-Social, or Home Health Aide services, receive significantly worse HCAHPS ratings, while mean ratings vary significantly across different US states. Multiple comparisons with post hoc ANOVA revealed differences between and within HHAs of different proprietary status (p < 0.001): governmental HHAs receiving higher ratings than private HHAs. Finally, there was observed a relationship between all five quality rating variables and the HHA year of establishment (Pearson, p < 0.001). The older the agency is, the better the HCAPS summary ratings. Findings provided the knowledge to design of a consumer health information system, to provide rankings filtered according to user criteria, comparing the quality rankings of eligible HHAs. Users can also see how a specific agency is ranked against eligible HHAs. Ultimately, the system aims to support the patient community with contextually realistic comparisons in an effort to choose optimal HH service.

Innovations in health information technology have ushered in a new era of health care. The use of emerging information and communication technology to improve or enable health and health care is the central focus of consumer health informatics (CHI). Traditionally, CHI interventions to promote health and well-being have targeted the individual or family. Advances in genomic health and the emergence of public health informatics call for broadening the scope of CHI. The authors discuss CHI from the point-of-view of the consumer (e.g., from individuals to policy makers) and the level of health data from the subcellular (e.g., genetic or protein structures) to population (e.g., geographically-referenced information).

Patients evaluate the quality of home health agencies (HHAs) using the Health Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. This paper describes a prototype community health information system to help patients select appropriate and quality HHAs, according to the location, proprietary status, type of service, and year of HHA establishment. Five HCAHPS indicators were selected: "summary rating", "quality of care", "professional care", "communication", and "recommend agency". Independent t-test analysis showed that agencies offering Speech Pathology, Medical-Social, or Home Health Aide services, receive significantly worse HCAHPS ratings, while mean ratings vary significantly across different US states. Multiple comparisons with post hoc ANOVA revealed differences between and within HHAs of different proprietary status (p < 0.001): governmental HHAs receiving higher ratings than private HHAs. Finally, there was observed a relationship between all five quality rating variables and the HHA year of establishment (Pearson, p < 0.001). The older the agency is, the better the HCAPS summary ratings. Findings provided the knowledge to design of a consumer health information system, to provide rankings filtered according to user criteria, comparing the quality rankings of eligible HHAs. Users can also see how a specific agency is ranked against eligible HHAs. Ultimately, the system aims to support the patient community with contextually realistic comparisons in an effort to choose optimal HH service.

The integration of digital technology into everyday lives of young people has become widespread. It is not known whether and how technology influences barriers and facilitators to healthcare, and whether and how young people navigate between face-to-face and virtual healthcare. To provide new knowledge essential to policy and practice, we designed a study that would explore health system access and navigation in the digital age. The study objectives are to: (1) describe experiences of young people accessing and navigating the health system in New South Wales (NSW), Australia; (2) identify barriers and facilitators to healthcare for young people and how these vary between groups; (3) describe health system inefficiencies, particularly for young people who are marginalised; (4) provide policy-relevant knowledge translation of the research data. This mixed methods study has four parts, including: (1) a cross-sectional survey of young people (12-24 years) residing in NSW, Australia; (2)...

Related Learning Experience or RLE is acourse offered in Tobruk University College of Nursing for 1 st year and 2 nd year students to prepare them for actual scenario in the hospital by practising skills related to Nursing and Health care. Team teaching is used to perform this activity and evaluated by Return Demonstration in the laboratory class and once more in the Final Return Demonstration or final exam. Tabulating all procedures and steps is a tedious matter doing it manually. In this study the proponents designed an RLE Scorer web forms based on Google survey forms to collect students performance and to computer for their equivalent marks. The focus of the study is in RLE 3 or parenteral drug administration. The collected data was saved in the Google drive and downloaded later; the results were treated statistically to find the mean score in all 5 procedures of RLE 3, and to find the difference between male and female respondents and the difference of variance based on rating. It was shown that the students performed generally well reaching the passing mark. The male students fared better in all procedures compared to femalebut there was no significant difference established. The purpose of the study is to encourage technological adaptation in collecting performances of nursing students, promoting team teaching in training of nursing skills in RLE thus supporting quality nursing education and nursing informatics.

Cadmium iodate [Cd (IO 3) 2 ] crystals were grown by single diffusion gel technique. Growth conditions were optimized. Optimum growth conditions are reported. The crystals were doped by impurities such as Cu +2 and Fe +3. Structure of crystals was confirmed by X-ray powder diffraction method. Effect of doping on structure is studied. Slight change in lattice parameter values is reported. Thermal studies of doped and undoped crystals are reported. Thermal analysis exhibits two steps explicitly on heating the samples. The first step involves decomposition reaction in the temperature range 500-580 0 C, giving products Cd 5 (IO 6) 2 , I 2 , and O 2. In the second step, decomposition reaction in the temperature range 580-620 0 C, yields solid product, Cd 5 (IO 4) 2 after reaction. Powder second harmonic generation experiments prove nonlinear nature of the substance. Nonlinear coefficient values,'d' of doped and undoped samples are reported. Cu +2 doped samples stop the generation of second harmonic signal. Fe +3 doped samples generate second harmonic signal, but the value of nonlinear coefficient is smaller than undoped sample.

While online survey systems facilitate the collection on copious records on diet, exercise and other health-related data, scientists and other public health experts typically must download data from those systems into external tools for conducting statistical analyses. A more convenient approach would enable researchers to perform analyses online, without the need to coordinate additional analysis tools. This paper presents a system illustrating such an approach, using as a testbed the WAVE project, which is a 5-year childhood obesity prevention initiative being conducted at Oregon State University by health scientists utilizing a web application called WavePipe. This web application has enabled health scientists to create studies, enrol subjects, collect physical activity data, and collect nutritional data through online surveys. This paper presents a new subsystem that enables health scientists to analyse and visualize nutritional profiles based on large quantities of 24-hour dietary recall records for subgroups of study subjects over any desired period of time. In addition, the subsystem enables scientists to enter new food information from food composition databases to build a comprehensive food profile. Interview feedback from novice health science researchers using the new functionality indicated that it provided a usable interface and generated high receptiveness to using the system in practice.

It is universally acknowledged that nursing profession is guided by both ethic and legal principles as it is the tools for professional discipline which gives the nurse a broad idea of what is expected of her as she moves from the protective ambiance of school into the society. Social changes such as right to healthcare, increasing cost of healthcare and conflicting institutional policies create ethico-legal problems for the nurses. This study is a cross-sectional descriptive study designed to determine knowledge, attitude and practice of nursing ethics and law among nurses at Federal Medical Centre, Bida. A total of 149 questionnaires were administered using simple random sampling technique. The main findings of this study established that the participating nurses possess considerably good knowledge, attitude and practice of nursing ethics and law. Majority (82.6%) of the participants obtained knowledge about ethical dilemma mostly (36%) through seminar/workshops followed by those (31%) who knew about it right from their respective schools of training. Three factors of professional progression in this study; professional qualification (p=.015), years of experience (p=.000) and rank (p=.002) had noticeable effects on knowledge, attitude and practice of nursing ethics and law among the participants. Several options were identified by the participants as remedies to reduce the incidence of ethical and legal issues in their practice area. These include; periodic workshops, adherence to nursing code of ethics, utilization of hospital policy and personal development. Although participants differedon whether providers should adhere to patients' wish at all times,they possess good knowledge on nursing ethics and law. The overall results of the study suggested that there is need for nurses to understand the relationship and limitations between ethics, hospital policy and legal issues as they relate to nursing practice.

SummaryTo define and assess ‘Consumer Health Informatics’ and related emergent issues in an era of new media and of personalisation of care, and from this to define what actions need to be taken to optimise benefits and address risks.Definition of key concepts; review of health personalisation, emergent health information and communication technologies and knowledge sources available to citizens and social media; and identification of unresolved issues threatening optimal use of each.A structured review supported by citations and examples.Several new aspects of consumer health informatics are emerging, including new knowledge sources, feedback on treatments and care providers, on-line videos, and a new generation of patient experience sites including those which are for profit and seek to influence treatment paradigms. Not just the information usage, but also the potential social challenges and malicious abuses, are global issues, and also transcend the traditional health community ...

Patients are not willing to share their personal health information. Hence, there is no need for PHRs to be interoperable. Reality Patients view the process of health information exchange as beneficial, especially when a patient has several health care providers. 3 Additionally, patients who have serious health problems express willingness to share their health information from a PHR. 2

Background: Accessibility and use of the internet-based health information are vital concepts in healthcare delivery. The Internet is changing not only the way patients get health information, but the way they interact with their healthcare providers and others alike. Several studies have explored the use of the Internet by the healthcare providers. However little is known about the extent to which individual patients use the Internet for their own personal healthcare information needs. Objective: This present study determined basic IT knowledge, skills and access to internet-based health information to address personal healthcare needs of the University of Ibadan employees. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that deployed multi-stage sampling techniques. Result: Four hundred and two (82.0%) of the 488 questionnaires distributed were analyzed. There were more (292, 72.6%) non-teaching participants in the study. All (402, 100%) participants were conversant with internet-based h...

Health care systems in many developed countries are rapidly approaching a crisis point. The reasons are an aging population, a shrinking number of workers, health care costs increasing faster than the economy, expensive new treatment options, poor public finances, and the reducing pool of health care professionals. The problem is compounded by the fact that elderly are more often affected by chronic diseases which require ongoing, often expensive, treatment. Telehealth and telecare applications are rapidly gaining in popularity because of their promise to use existing health care resources more effectively and hence to lower costs. However, usage is limited by a design often centered around the requirements of the clinical user, healthcare provider, and the equipment vendor. Many existing systems suffer from high initial costs, cannot be extended by third parties, require extra costs to add new functionalities, and are designed to create a continuing revenue source for the vendor. Furthermore the systems are usually designed to manage diseases rather than prevent them, and do not address the social and psychological needs of the patient. In this paper we critically analyse existing consumer health informatics systems and propose a framework for overcoming the identified shortcomings. The proposed system is ubiquitous, extendable by third parties, contains social aspects, and puts the user in control. Evidence from related research suggests that the design will increase motivation and participation, encourage family and social support, and improve the recording of health parameters by reducing user resistance.

Innovations in health information technology have ushered in a new era of health care. The use of emerging information and communication technology to improve or enable health and health care is the central focus of consumer health informatics (CHI). Traditionally, CHI interventions to promote health and well-being have targeted the individual or family. Advances in genomic health and the emergence of public health informatics call for broadening the scope of CHI. The authors discuss CHI from the point-of-view of the consumer (e.g., from individuals to policy makers) and the level of health data from the subcellular (e.g., genetic or protein structures) to population (e.g., geographically-referenced information).

An increasing array of technology based tools are available for patient and consumer utilization which claim to facilitate health improvement. The efficacy of these Consumer Health Informatics tools has not previously been systematically reviewed. As such a systematic evidence review of the efficacy of consumer health informatics tools was conducted. This review also sought evidence of any barriers to future widespread utilization of these tools and evidence of economic impact of these tools on health care costs. The findings of this review indicate that while more work needs to be done, the available literature does suggest a positive impact of consumer health informatics tools on select health conditions and outcomes. Many barriers remain that must be overcome prior to widespread utilization of these tools. There was insufficient data regarding economic impact of consumer health informatics tools on healthcare costs.

It is a truism that, for innovative eHealth systems to have true value and impact, they must first and foremost be usable and accessible by clinicians, consumers, and other stakeholders. In this paper, current trends and future challenges in the usability and accessibility of consumer health informatics will be described. Consumer expectations of their healthcare providers and healthcare records in

Patients evaluate the quality of home health services (HHAs) using the HCAHPS survey. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) publishes these ratings, using a five-star system. There are three types of HHAs, according to their proprietary status: governmental, non-profit and for-profit. The objective of this study is to, first measure differences of patient ratings between the three proprietary types, then construct an updated ranking, adjusted to the proprietary status, and finally develop a pilot interface to assist patients and their caregivers compare and choose high quality service. Five HCAHPS indicators were selected: summary rating, quality of patient care, professional care, communication and percent of patients who would recommend the agency to friends and family. Governmental and for-profit agencies received the highest and lowest summary ratings respectively (85.7% vs 53.3% were rated with four or five stars). Multiple comparisons with post hoc ANOVA analysis, revealed statistically significant differences for the majority of ratings, between and within the three different types of home health agencies (p &lt;0.001). Since patients are often limited to agencies of a specific proprietary status, adjusted ratings comparing agencies to counterparts of same proprietary status, were constructed, and incorporated into a pilot interface. The interface will allow patients compare the original and adjusted ratings for specific HHAs of interest, or search by State, and zip code. Patients will therefore have a more realistic picture on how an agency stacks up against other candidates of same proprietary status, in an effort to choose optimal HH service.

In order to design effective health technologies and systems, it is important to understand how patients learn and make decisions about health technologies used in their care. The objective of this study was to examine patients&#x27; source of learning about technologies used in their care and how the source related to their trust in the technology was used. Individual face-to-face and telephone interviews were conducted with 24 patients. Altogether, 13 unique sources of information about technology were identified and three major themes ...

To define and assess &#39;Consumer Health Informatics&#39; and related emergent issues in an era of new media and of personalisation of care, and from this to define what actions need to be taken to optimise benefits and address risks. Definition of key concepts; review of health personalisation, emergent health information and communication technologies and knowledge sources available to citizens and social media; and identification of unresolved issues threatening optimal use of each. A structured review supported by citations and examples. Several new aspects of consumer health informatics are emerging, including new knowledge sources, feedback on treatments and care providers, on-line videos, and a new generation of patient experience sites including those which are for profit and seek to influence treatment paradigms. Not just the information usage, but also the potential social challenges and malicious abuses, are global issues, and also transcend the traditional health commun...

An algorithm estimating vocabulary complexity of a consumer health text can help improve readability of consumer health materials. We had previously developed and validated an algorithm predicting lay familiarity with health terms on the basis of the terms' frequency in consumer health texts and experimental data. Present study is part of the program studying the influence of reader factors on familiarity with health terms and concepts. Using gender as a proxy for background knowledge, the study evaluates male and female participants' familiarity with terms and concepts pertaining to three types of health topics: male-specific, female-specific and gender-neutral. Of the terms / concepts of equal predicted difficulty, males were more familiar with those pertaining to neutral and male-specific topics (the effect was especially pronounced for "difficult" terms); no topic effect was observed for females. The implications for tailoring health readability formulas to various target populations are discussed.

C onsumer health informatics and e-health [ie, electronic health information and services available over networks such as the Internet 1,2 and related technologies such as digital TV/WebTV, wireless media such as Web-compatible mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs)] are emerging trends that will redefine health care in the 21st century. The desire of (most) consumers to assume more responsibility for their health care and a growing desire of health professionals to fully realise the potential of the patient and their families coincide with the emergence and increasing availability of interactive information accessible to consumers. These developments are further fueled by cost-saving pressures in health systems and the hope that giving consumers more information and power could increase the quality of care (eg, by avoiding unnecessary or duplicate interventions) and save costs by fully realizing the self-help potential of the patient and his family. Information technology and consumerism are synergetic forces that together promote an "information age health care system," where (ideally) consumers can use information technology to access information at home and control their own health care and thereby utilize health care resources more efficiently. This paper focuses on the opportunities and challenges of e-health and related developments for the concept of evidence-based patient choice (EBPC). 4 Evidence-based patient choice is a paradigm at the intersection of evidence-based medicine (EBM) and patientcentered medicine and is one important pillar for modern health care. Patient-centered medicine and evidence-based medicine are closely linked concepts. Both emphasize that it is not the authority of the doctor that justifies a particular clinical intervention. EBM argues from the scientific standpoint that the evidence for the intervention's effectiveness must be the foundation of selecting an intervention (emphasizing the "science" of medicine), and patient-centered medicine argues from a humanistic standpoint that patients should play a central role in decisions about health care, stressing the fact that patient preferences must be incorporated into clinical decision making.

The study explored consumer health information seeking behavior of members of a local Korean community in Tallahassee, Florida; how they assessed the quality of health information; and what cultural values influenced their understanding of its quality. The study employed semistructured interviews. The study identified accuracy and reliability as the two most valuable quality characteristics. Commercial type of a webpage was considered as a negative indicator for reliability, while the same information found on more than one website as an indicator of the information’s reliability. In addition to functional quality criteria, the study found non-functional characteristics such as empathy. Most of all findings highlighted that cultural differences limited the use of health information. Quality based selection of information is an important part of a health information seeking process. This study can help the designers of consumer health information systems on the Web with important insights into how to support the evaluation of quality of health information by consumers, and to reduce barriers to information-seeking and use caused by cultural differences

IEEE, IHE, and HL 7 have collaborated to develop “medical informatics” standards for over two decades. These organizations are working to assure medical device and electronic medical record systems can reliably exchange data for safe and secure acute-care and personal health applications. This paper presents advancement in the field of Interoperable Biomedical Technologies to save lives, reduce errors, and improve the quality and cost of healthcare around the globe.

Abstract Policies are a cornerstone for the effective implementation of a strategy. In the healthcare context, policies should not only highlight a country&#39;s vision towards the provision of healthcare but also identify the mechanisms through which such provision will be dispensed and the target beneficiaries. In addition, information technologies have been acknowledged as important media for healthcare delivery. Moreover, as the world&#39;s population is ageing, there is a need for a renewed focus on elderly healthcare. It is in this context that this paper investigated the National Digital Health Strategy for South Africa (2019-2024) concerning the provision of healthcare to the elderly and the use of the Internet of Medical Things in healthcare provision using the Policy Triangle Framework as the theoretical lens. Findings revealed that the country&#39;s digital health strategy is comprehensive and, therefore, could be used as a gauge for the formulation of electronic health strategies that make provision for the use of emerging technologies in developing countries.

Patient access to electronic health records (EHRs) is associated with improved efficiency, self-management, and patient engagement. However, the EHR contains medical language that can be difficult to comprehend by patients. In Dutch hospitals, the Diagnosethesaurus (DT) is used as an interface terminology to register diagnoses, but it does not contain patient-friendly terms. Fortunately, the DT is partly mapped to SNOMED CT and there is a proportionately small set of patient-friendly terms available in the Dutch SNOMED CT release. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to investigate if SNOMED CT can be used to generate clarifications of diagnoses for patients. Only 1.2% of the DT diagnoses that were already mapped to SNOMED CT had patient-friendly synonyms that were different from the diagnoses descriptions. However, by generalizing diagnoses to SNOMED CT concepts with patient-friendly terms, this number could be increased to 71%. In conclusion, we showed that a high percentage ...

Treatment management in cancer patients is largely based on the use of a standardized set of predictive and prognostic factors. The former are used to evaluate specific clinical interventions, and they can be useful for selecting treatments because they directly predict the response to a treatment. The latter are used to evaluate a patient's overall outcomes, and can be used to identify the risks or recurrence of a disease. Current intelligent systems can be a solution for transferring advancements in molecular biology into practice, especially for predicting the molecular response to molecular targeted therapy and the prognosis of risk groups in cancer medicine. This framework primarily focuses on the importance of integrating domain knowledge in predictive and prognostic models for personalized treatment. Our personalized medicine support system provides the needed support in complex decisions and can be incorporated into a treatment guide for selecting molecular targeted therapies.

Patients evaluate the quality of home health agencies (HHAs) using the Health Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. This paper describes a prototype community health information system to help patients select appropriate and quality HHAs, according to the location, proprietary status, type of service, and year of HHA establishment. Five HCAHPS indicators were selected: &quot; summary rating &quot; , &quot; quality of care &quot; , &quot; professional care &quot; , &quot; communication &quot; , and &quot; recommend agency &quot;. Independent t-test analysis showed that agencies offering Speech Pathology, Medical-Social, or Home Health Aide services, receive significantly worse HCAHPS ratings, while mean ratings vary significantly across different US states. Multiple comparisons with post hoc ANOVA revealed differences between and within HHAs of different proprietary status (p &lt; 0.001): governmental HHAs receiving higher ratings than private HHAs....

It is universally acknowledged that nursing profession is guided by both ethic and legal principles as it is the tools for professional discipline which gives the nurse a broad idea of what is expected of her as she moves from the protective ambiance of school into the society. Social changes such as right to healthcare, increasing cost of healthcare and conflicting institutional policies create ethico-legal problems for the nurses. This study is a cross-sectional descriptive study designed to determine knowledge, attitude and practice of nursing ethics and law among nurses at Federal Medical Centre, Bida. A total of 149 questionnaires were administered using simple random sampling technique. The main findings of this study established that the participating nurses possess considerably good knowledge, attitude and practice of nursing ethics and law. Majority (82.6%) of the participants obtained knowledge about ethical dilemma mostly (36%) through seminar/workshops followed by those ...

Policies are a cornerstone for the effective implementation of a strategy. In the healthcare context, policies should not only highlight a country's vision towards the provision of healthcare but also identify the mechanisms through which such provision will be dispensed and the target beneficiaries. In addition, information technologies have been acknowledged as important media for healthcare delivery. Moreover, as the world's population is ageing, there is a need for a renewed focus on elderly healthcare. It is in this context that this paper investigated the National Digital Health Strategy for South Africa (2019-2024) concerning the provision of healthcare to the elderly and the use of the Internet of Medical Things in healthcare provision using the Policy Triangle Framework as the theoretical lens. Findings revealed that the country's digital health strategy is comprehensive and, therefore, could be used as a gauge for the formulation of electronic health strategies that make provision for the use of emerging technologies in developing countries.

This paper uses consumer health informatics as a framework to explore whether and how direct-to-consumer personal genomic testing can be regarded as a form of information which assists consumers to manage their health. It presents findings from qualitative content analysis of web sites that offer testing services, and of transcripts from focus groups conducted as part a study of the Australian public&#39;s expectations of personal genomics. Content analysis showed that service offerings have some features of consumer health information but lack consistency. Focus group participants were mostly unfamiliar with the specifics of test reports and related information services. Some of their ideas about aids to knowledge were in line with the benefits described on provider web sites, but some expectations were inflated. People were ambivalent about whether these services would address consumers&#39; health needs, interests and contexts and whether they would support consumers&#39; health ...