Summary
Objectives: The availability of internet-connected mobile, wearable and ambient consumer technologies,
direct-to-consumer e-services and peer-to-peer social media sites far outstrips evidence
about the efficiency, effectiveness and efficacy of using them in healthcare applications.
The aim of this paper is to describe one approach to build a program of health informatics
research, so as to generate rich and robust evidence about health data and information
processing in self-quantification and associated healthcare and health outcomes.
Methods: The paper summarises relevant health informatics research approaches in the literature
and presents an example of developing a program of research in the Health and Biomedical
Informatics Centre (HaBIC) at the University of Melbourne. The paper describes this
program in terms of research infrastructure, conceptual models, research design, research
reporting and knowledge sharing.
Results: The paper identifies key outcomes from integrative and multiple-angle approaches
to investigating the management of information and data generated by use of this Centre’s
collection of wearable, mobiles and other devices in health self-monitoring experiments.
These research results offer lessons for consumers, developers, clinical practitioners
and biomedical and health informatics researchers.
Conclusions: Health informatics is increasingly called upon to make sense of emerging self-quantification
and other digital health phenomena that are well beyond the conventions of healthcare
in which the field of informatics originated and consolidated. To make a substantial
contribution to optimise the aims, processes and outcomes of health self-quantification
needs further work at scale in multi-centre collaborations for this Centre and for
health informatics researchers generally.
Keywords
Autoexperimentation - consumer participation - participatory health - research design
- self-quantification - telemedicine