Consumer Health Informatics: Challenges and Opportunities

Running head: CONSUMER HEALTH INFORMATICS
Consumer Health Informatics
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1CONSUMER HEALTH INFORMATICS
Introduction
Consumer health informatics can be described as the branch of the medical informatics
and it analyses the needs of the customer's information; studies as well as implements the
methods for making the information accessible to the customers; models as well as integrate the
preferences of the customers (Valdez et al., 2014).
Challenges
According to Laxman (2015), the several challenges encountered in the healthcare due to
the consumer health informatics are as follows:
 Privacy- the security and the privacy concerns are the major areas of concern in
public health records and also there are issues relating to the uploading of the
private health information on to a server.
 Physical disabilities- the consumers that have the physical disabilities may
recognise the potential of the public health records that enable them in managing
and organizing the health information, but at the same time be unable to do
without the proper guidance.
 Low literacy in reading and computer- computer literacy and the anxiety is a
major concern among the consumers or the patients that use the public health
records or the consumer health informatics.
 Terminology- it is important to note that the medical terms or the medical jargons
that are used in the consumer health informatics are too confusing and complex
without the medical training.
 Ensuring the accurate data- it is necessary that the data is gathered from reliable
consumers, sources that are both without the error and is complete.