title: Usability and accessibility in consumer health informatics current trends and future challenges.
abstract: It is a truism that, for innovative eHealth systems to have true value and impact, they must first and foremost be usable and accessible by clinicians, consumers, and other stakeholders. In this paper, current trends and future challenges in the usability and accessibility of consumer health informatics will be described. Consumer expectations of their healthcare providers and healthcare records in this new era of consumer-directed care will be explored, and innovative visualizations, assistive technologies, and other ways that healthcare information is currently being provided and/or shared will be described. Challenges for ensuring the usability of current and future systems will also be discussed. An innovative model for conducting systematic, timely, user-centered research on consumer-facing websites at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the ongoing efforts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to promote health information technology (HIT) usability standards and evaluation criteria will also be presented.
authors.affiliation: Media Access Group, WGBH National Center for Accessible Media, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Larry
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Goldberg
authors.forename: Bettijoyce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lide
authors.forename: Svetlana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lowry
authors.forename: Holly A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Massett
authors.forename: Trisha
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: O'Connell
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Preece
authors.forename: Whitney
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Quesenbery
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shneiderman
mesh_terms: D003258:Consumer Behavior; D054626:Consumer Health Information / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000458:organization & administration; D055991:Health Records, Personal; D006801:Humans; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D017146:Models, Organizational; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D012106:Research / Q000458:organization & administration; D014481:United States