Where patients are partners. --The Medical City Consumer and Patient Use of Computers for Health

1. To state who are the consumers of health services. 2. To identify the different areas where consumer use of computers are applied. 3. To recognize the different issues in Consumer use of computers for health. 4. To distinguish the Areas of Nursing Expertise that can be Applied to Consumer/Patient Computing Objectives

Consumers of health services

APPLICATION AREAS

Information seeking

Communication and support

Personal health records

Decision support

Disease management

Issues in Consumer computing for health

The Issues on Using Computers for health care Variability in quality of Information available to consumers Lack of security in Internet-based transactions Uneven accessibility across Age, Ethnic, and Socioeconomic Groups: The Digital Divide Educational and Cultural Barriers Physical and Cognitive Disabilities Impact on Relationship with health care providers

Variable Quality of Information --we cannot rely too much on the information in the internet.

Lack of Security - Privacy can be violated.

The Digital Divide - According to surveys, Internet users are those who are better educated, wealthier, younger, and living in urban areas.

Educational and Cultural BARRIERS - Literacy, language preference, and cultural background are among the factors that affect internet usage and accessibility..

Physical and Cognitive Disabilities

Impact on Relationship with Health care providers.

Areas of Nursing Expertise that can be Applied to Consumer/Patient Computing - deep expertise in patient education - cultural diversity in the workforce and a strong ethic of cultural sensitivity -strong background in both patient and community-focused research -strong heritage of patient advocacy and patient empowerment

Consumer health informatics is broad and multifaceted. It does not only belong to only one discipline but draws expertise of a variety of health, science, social and technical fields. Though it presents a lot of advantages, there are also issues covering consumer use of information for health. Extra care and knowledge on existing issues, legalities is needed for whoever is using the computer for health information. Conclusion

Bibliography Hebda, Toni/Czar, Patricia/Mascara, Cynthia. (2005). Handbook of Informatics for Nurses & Healthcare Professionals.3 rd edition, Pearson Educational Inc: New Jersey Saba, Virginia/ McCormick, Kathleen. (2006). Essentials of Nursing Informatics. 4 th edition. McGraw-Hill Companies: Singapore.