Utilizing social media, mobile devices and sensors for consumer health communication: a framework for categorizing emerging technologies and techniques

While the advent of social media, ubiquitous Internet-connected mobile devices and widespread deployment of sensors are still relatively new phenomena, a rapid penetration of these technologies is being seen and their impact in relation to health-related communications is more recently also being considered. In relation to health in particular, these communications systems can also be considered to gain extended capabilities when used in conjunction with each other in relation to consumer health communication. In this paper we introduce a framework to categorize and analyze the emerging types of consumer health-related interactions and communications enabled by these technologies and consider how the techniques fit within this broader framework for the utilization of emerging communications technologies for applications to healthcare