Health Informatics and Information Therapy

I think we all agree on the importance of having access to relevant health information when we need it. While an e-patients.net post last year debated the relevance of the term 'information therapy,' I think it's safe to say we'd all rather leave the doctor's office - or hospital - with patient instructions and educational information that is relevant to us (as opposed to our neighbor, Bob).

During my tenure as the Research Manager at the Center for Information Therapy prior to its closure last November, I struggled to articulate the unspoken, yet problematic assumptions underlying the process of prescribing Ix (information therapy). While large and integrated health systems likely know enough about you to provide you with targeted (and helpful) information (including instructions on follow-up care and/or educational information about your diagnosis), I wonder how (and if) this scales down to smaller practices and other care providers that don't have the capacity to share (or compute) information about you in a meaningful way.

Sometimes I wonder why we don't talk more about health informatics and health information exchange and how these things directly affect our health care. Do patients, epatients, and advocates think about health informatics and health information exchange? Do we care? Do we want to participate in the conversations or leave it to the 'experts'? If we leave it to the experts, do we want to have input on selecting which experts best represent our interests?