Introduction to the Minitrack on Health Technologies that Interface Patients and Providers

This HICSS minitrack is devoted to a class of health technologies that serve as an interface between patients and their medical providers. These technologies not only help patients gain easier access to their own medical records, but also help providers obtain patient-generated data as well as extend their care services to patient homes. If designed and used properly, these technologies have the potential to facilitate patient–provide communication, and bridge the knowledge, information, and data gap between patients and medical professionals. Based on the peerreview feedback, we selected four papers to include in this minitrack. These papers cover a wide range of topics, from evaluating the effectiveness of specific applications to observational and focus group studies aiming to obtain a better understanding of sociotechnical issues and privacy concerns surrounding the use of such applications. We look forward to further research development on this important topic.