help public health face this challenge by providing increased capacity to handle, analyze, and act on data that is likely to increase during the coming years.

Health promotion and disease prevention is another aspect of public health that can be dramatically transformed by informatics. Methods and applications ranging from interactive guideline dissemination, preventive care reminders linked to the electronic medical record, computerized health risk assessments, and tailored messages can help health promotion and disease prevention interventions become more effective than ever before. Web-based systems are offering new strategies in health education. Applications can provide decision support for consumers, focusing on personalized goal setting, feedback regarding progress toward goals, and social support. Consumers of health care and patients managing chronic health conditions can make use of electronic portals to share coping strategies, provide emotional support, and exchange information on relevant health Websites.

Consumer health informatics has been defined as the field of biomedical informatics that is concerned with this area. Informatics methods and applications are stimulating research and development in the use of information and communication technologies. In the broadest sense, consumer health informatics involves (1) analyzing, formalizing, and modeling consumer preferences and information needs; (2) developing methods to integrate these into information management in health promotion, clinical, educational, and research activities; (3) investigating the effectiveness and efficacy of computerized information, telecommunication, and network systems for consumers in relation to their participation in health and health care related activities; and (4) studying the effects of these systems on public health, the patient-professional relationship, and society.

It is both inevitable and desirable that health promotion and disease prevention interventions become more available electronically, empowering consumers with enhanced control over their health. Public health professionals working to ensure the public’s health can help consumers by developing and increasing the availability of health-promoting technology based applications, and by safeguarding the confidentiality and security of the health data to which consumers are likely to be electronically exposed.

A critical challenge for public health informatics is to educate the public health workforce in computing and communication technology applicable to public health activities. Some level of informatics training for both new and existing public health workers is essential. Just as every public health professional needs basic knowledge of epidemiology, a basic understanding of public health informatics is critical for effective practice in the information age (Yasnoff et al., 2000). The extent to which