Heidi Enwald

I have conducted research on health information behaviour (i.e., information needs, seeking and use), health information literacy, eHealth literacy, tailoring health information in e-health services, health communication and feedback tactics since 2008. Open science, open research data and engaged research (citizen science) are also close to my heart. At 2011 I had a privilege to be a visiting researcher at Stanford University, California.

Since November 2021 I have been the head of our information studies unit. As university lecturer I teach courses for both bachelor and master level. I am responsible of the student counselling, practical training course of ours and also presenting our degree programs. Furthermore, I have been the coordinator and teacher of our open university studies since 2013.

I have master's degree both in Information Studies and in Biochemistry. The topic of my doctoral thesis, finalized in 2013, was “Tailoring health communication. The perspective of information users´ health information behaviour in relation to their physical health status”. I applied and received the Title of Docent (Adjunct Professor) (with title Tailored eHealth communications) from Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Oulu in the end of 2019.

I belong to the HIM Oulu&Åbo and to Inspires research groups. By focusing on human- and information-centric perspectives, I have been involved in several multidisciplinary health related research and e-health service design projects. These projects have focused on young men (MOPO study) prediabetic individuals (PreDiabEx project), individuals in high risk for metabolic syndrome (PrevMetSyn project) and the older adults [GASEL project and HIBA project (Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland)]. Our HIM Oulu&Åbo research group belongs to Medical Research Center, MRC, of University of Oulu.

Since 2021 I have been part of Resistant Cities: Urban Planning as Means for Pandemic Prevention (RECIPE) consortium funded by Strategic Research Council by Academy of Finland. In this consortium we are responsible of the stakeholder interaction and also do research e.g., on knowledge creation, information gaps, open science and engaged research.