A Multi-disciplinary Science of Human Computer Interaction in Biomedical Informatics

Abstract

Health information technologies have become vital tools for the practice of clinical medicine. However, numerous challenges remain for the fuller realization of its potential as instruments that advance clinical care and enhance patient safety. Human-computer interaction (HCI) is a discipline rooted in computer science as well as the social and behavioral sciences. It is focally concerned with evaluating and improving user experience, usability, and usefulness of technology. HCI in medicine and healthcare, the subject matter of this volume, extends across clinical and consumer health informatics, addressing a range of user populations including providers, biomedical scientists and patients. The breadth of HCI in biomedicine and healthcare is rather broad including thousands of journal articles across medical disciplines and consumer health domains. Although the 14 chapters in this volume are rather varied in subject matter and scope, there is greater focus on clinical informatics with a couple of chapters addressing consumer health informatics issues. This introductory chapter provides a brief overview of the other chapters in this volume.