Evidence-based Practice. Findings from the Section on Education and Consumer Health Informatics

To provide an overview of outstanding current research conducted in Education and Consumer Informatics.

Synopsis of the articles on education and consumer health informatics published in 2012 and selected for the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics 2013.

Architecture of monitoring or telehealth information systems for patients with chronic disease must include wireless devices to aid in the collection of personal data. Data acquisition technologies have an impact on patients' willingness to participate in telehealth programmes. Patients are more likely to prefer mobile applications over web-based applications. Social media is widely used by clinicians. Especially younger clinicians use it for personal purposes and for reference materials retrieval. Questions remain on optimal training requirements and on the effects on clinician behavior and on patient outcomes. A high level of e-Health literacy by patients will promote increased adoption and utilization of personal health records.

The selected articles highlight the need for training of clinicians to become aware of existing telehealth systems, in order to correctly inform and guide patients to take part in telehealth systems and adopt personal healthcare records (PHR).