Personal Health Informatics: New Tools and Roles for Health Care

Technological advancements have introduced wearable and passive monitoring tools that can capture aspects of daily living, health and well-being in homes and communities. Personal Health Informatics is the study of any information system, tool or platform designed for individuals and their families/ communities with the goal to facilitate decision making, access to information, education, managing health, prevent disease, and improve communication whereby the individual patient or consumer is the end user whose needs and preferences inform the design and implementation of the system. Examples of such tools include digital phenotyping, consumer genomics and smart homes. Such platforms capture patient generated health data and allow for proactive models of care, whereby patterns or trends are analyzed to identify opportunities for tailored interventions. Future research needs to address the impact of personal health informatics systems on health outcomes, shared decision making and patient empowerment. We discuss new roles and opportunities that arise with the growth of this field, including the role of the personal health data navigator who can guide and assist patients and families in navigating the complex digital landscape in order to most effectively utilize inclusive personal health informatics tools.