Track: Information Technology in Health Care
Minitrack: HCI and Consumer Health Informatics Issues in
                   Healthcare IT

There are a wide range of users affected by emerging technologies in health care and a wide range of services these technologies can offer. On the side of health care professionals, healthcare organizations worldwide are currently undertaking massive transformations and additions to their IT infrastructure. Health care professionals use health technologies to comply with changing regulations, improve patient care, and provide improved support for office staff, clinicians, and patients.

In addition after decades of development of health technology systems designed primarily for physicians and other healthcare managers and professionals, there is an increasing interest in reaching and empowering patients directly through computers and telecommunications systems (Eysenbach 2000). Consumer participation may take place at various points in the care process: prevention, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring, and/or maintenance, and HCI issues emerge at each stage.

History suggests that the success of emerging healthcare applications and new innovations will depend to a large degree on the ability of people to use them effectively and efficiently. Human-computer interaction (HCI) research can provide valuable guidance to the design, implementation, and evaluation processes to improve the usability of healthcare IT.

Thus, potential exists for HCI and consumer health informatics researchers to apply existing knowledge to improve healthcare IT, formulate new theories and practices, and create new technologies in light of HCI considerations specific to the healthcare context. This minitrack provides a focused outlet at HICSS for HCI and consumer health informatics researchers in healthcare domains to share and discuss the results of their work. Research is welcomed on any work that focuses on users (health consumers, medical professionals, and others) and related usability. Various methodologies (design science, qualitative, and quantitative work) are welcome. Broad categories of suitable papers will include:

• Usability, design, and other HCI issues related to health technology such as:
  personal health record (PHR) applications,
  patient care monitoring systems,
  chronic care management tools,
  home health care devices,
  media and devices to better enable communication between doctor and patient,
  telemedicine devices ,
  medical knowledge management systems,
  systems assisting patients in self-management, maintaining safety, and communicating with medical professionals .
  online reference sources like WebMD,
  practice management systems,
  preventive care systems,
  public health informatics,
  electronic medical records applications,
   

• Innovation of new tools and devices with a strong usability or HCI consideration

• Interaction issues in new technologies to empower and inform health care for consumers

• Interaction issues in navigating the wealth of health information on the Internet

• HCI issues in using health technologies across cultures or geographic regions.

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Ann Fruhling (Primary Contact)
College of Information Science & Technology
Peter Kiewit Institute
University of Nebraska at Omaha
1110 S. 67th Street
Omaha, Nebraska 68182-0500
Phone: 402-554-4968
Fax: 402-554-3284
Email: afruhling@mail.unomaha.edu

Cynthia LeRouge
Decision Sciences/ Information Technology Management Department
Saint Louis University
3674 Lindell Avenue
Saint Louis, MO 63108
Phone: 314-977-3852
Email: lerougec@slu.edu

Richard Burkhard
College of Business, Department of MIS
San Jose State University
One Washington Square
San Jose, CA 95192
Phone: Burkhard_r@cob.sjsu.edu