Consumer health informatics: from genomics to population health

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).