Yearb Med Inform 2012; 21(01): 48-55
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1639430
Survey
Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart

Critical Advances in Bridging Personal Health Informatics and Clinical Informatics

S. Koch
1   Health Informatics Centre, Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
,
V. Vimarlund
2   Center of Information Technology and Information Systems, Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping, Sweden
3   Department of Computer Science, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

Publication Date:
10 March 2018 (online)

Summary

Objectives

To provide a survey over significant developments in the area of linking personal health informatics and clinical informatics, to give insights into critical advances and to discuss open problems and opportunities in this area.

Methods

A scoping review over the literature published in scientific journals and relevant conference proceedings in the intersection between personal health informatics and clinical informatics over the years 2010 and 2011 was performed.

Results

The publications analyzed are related to two main topics, namely “Sharing information and collaborating through personal health records, portals and social networks” and “Integration of personal health systems with clinical information systems”. For the first topic,resultsarepresentedaccordingtofivedifferentthemes:”Patient expectationsandattitudes”,”Realuseexperiences”,”Changesforcareproviders”,”Barrierstoadoption”and”Proposedtechnicalinfrastructures”.Forthesecondtopic,twodifferentthemeswerefound,namely”Technicalarchitecturesand interoperability”“and”Security,safetyandprivacyissues”.

Discussion

Results show a number of gaps between the information needs of patients and the information care provider organizations provide to them as well as the lack of a trusted technical, ethical and regulatory framework regarding information sharing.

Conclusions

Despiterecentdevelopmentsintheareasofpersonal health informatics and clinical informatics both fields have diverging needs. To support both clinical work processes and empower patients to effectivelyhandleself-care, anumberofissuesremainunsolved.Open issues include privacy and confidentiality, including trusted sharing of health information and building collaborative environments between patients,theirfamiliesandcareproviders.Therearefurtherchallengesto meet around health and technology literacy as well as to overcome structural and organizational barriers. Frameworks for evaluatingpersonal health informatics applications and pervasive health technology are needed to build up an evidence basis.