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  • © 2019

Consumer Informatics and Digital Health

Solutions for Health and Health Care

  • Presents a consumer-friendly overview of technical, social, and policy issues associated with the adoption, use, and impact of consumer technologies for health and health care
  • Takes a multi-sector, integrated systems approach to help unify the field of digital health, with an emphasis on user-centered design, best practices, and building the evidence base
  • Provides a technical foundation that inspires students in computer sciences, information design, and communications to get involved in consumer health informatics

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Table of contents (20 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
  2. Foundations of Consumer Informatics and Mobile Health

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. Introduction to Consumer Health Informatics and Digital Inclusion

      • M. Christopher Gibbons, Yahya Shaikh
      Pages 25-41
    3. Using Information Technology at Kaiser Permanente to Support Health Equity

      • Ronald L. Copeland, Winston F. Wong, Jason Jones, Margo Edmunds
      Pages 43-59
  3. A New Ecosystem for Development and Design

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 87-87
    2. Understanding Usability and Human-Centered Design Principles

      • Christopher Hass, Margo Edmunds
      Pages 89-105
    3. A Practical Guide to Usability Testing

      • Christopher Hass
      Pages 107-124
    4. Understanding the Human-Centered Design Process

      • Christopher Hass
      Pages 145-162
  4. Consumer-Centered and Consumer-Generated Information

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 181-181
    2. Consumer Engagement and Empowerment Through Visualization of Consumer-Generated Health Data

      • Adriana Arcia, Jacqueline A. Merrill, Suzanne Bakken
      Pages 183-203
    3. Telemedicine and Pediatric Urgent Care: A Vision into the Future

      • Mordechai D. Raskas, Kari Gali, Dana Aronson Schinasi, Shayan Vyas
      Pages 205-219
    4. Behavioral Medicine and Informatics in the Cancer Community

      • Ellen Beckjord, David K. Ahern, Bradford Hesse
      Pages 245-274
  5. Policy and Regulatory Issues

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 287-287

About this book

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.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Washington, DC, USA

    Margo Edmunds

  • Boston, USA

    Christopher Hass

  • Takoma Park, USA

    Erin Holve

About the editors

Margo Edmunds, PhD, is vice president, Evidence Generation and Translation at AcademyHealth, where she oversees a portfolio of projects on information infrastructure, research translation, dissemination, and health communications. Her expertise includes informatics and communications technology policy, health information exchange, and web-based learning and communications tools.


Christopher Hass is a consulting UX strategist, presenter, and past president of UXPA International and its Boston Chapter. He is an expert on the subjects of human-centered design, accessibility, UX research, and the development of innovative products and services for a wide variety of commercial and government clients.



Erin Holve, PhD, MPH, MPP,is director, Health Care Reform and Innovation at the Department of Health Care Finance within the Government of the District of Columbia, where she leads the design ofreform and technology projects to enhance the value of Medicaid in the District. She is a expert in learning health systems and patient centered outcomes research, and founding editor of the journal, eGEMs, a first-of-its kind publication dedicated to accelerating research and quality improvement using electronic health data. 

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access