The provision of health information to consumers, specifically tailored to their needs and preferences, is indispensable in healthcare. With access to evidence-based and appropriate health information and adequate understanding, consumers are more likely to make informed decisions, become more proficient in health questions, and experience improvements in the prevention or treatment of medical conditions. Most of today’s health information, however, is provided in the form of static documents and do not address the specific information needs and preconditions of the persons.
In the FWF Research Group Human-Centered Interactive Adaptive Visual Approaches in High-Quality Health Information, we develop a novel and innovative visual health information system, based on the idea of adaptive, interactive document and information visualizations. Our main idea is that the visual representation of health information, and its adjustment to user’s individual information needs and preferences, improves the understanding and motivation for health information, and advances the general health literacy and commitments to health-conscious decisions and behavior. We focus on a concrete important health information problem: Type 2 Diabetes, which affects a large part of the population, and due to the many different and long-lasting health implications, is very valuable to support. Researchers from Computer Science, Medicine, and Cognitive Psychology collaborate in this project on developing, evaluating and applying in practical scenarios a fully functional software prototype.
More information is available on the webpage.
