Health Care Informatics Origin of Health Informatics:
Field of health informatics is > 40 years. Now it is important component of the overall practice of medicine.
Data:
“Data is raw, unorganized facts that need to be processed. Data can be something simple and seemingly random and useless until it is organized”
Information:
“Information is data that has been processed into a form that is meaningful to the recipient”
Data Processing Information
Knowledge:
“Is a familiarity, awareness or understanding of someone or something, such as facts, information, descriptions, or skills, which is acquired through experience or education by perceiving, discovering, or learning”
Wisdom
Knowledge
Information
Data
(DIKW Pyramid)
Characteristics of useful information:
1. Timely.
2. High quality.
3. Complete.
4. Relevant.
5. Understandable Information System:
It is any combination of information technology and people's activities using that technology to support operations, management, and decision making.
Informatics:
The science of information
Health Informatics definitions:
1- The application of information technologies to optimize the information management function within the health system".
2- Deals with the resources, devices and methods required to optimize the acquisition, storage, retrieval and use of information in health.
3- The application of computers, communications and information technology and systems to all fields of health care.
4- A mathematics and statistics-based approach to understanding health information
Sub-domains of Health Informatics:
• Medical informatics
• Clinical informatics
• Nursing informatics
• Public health informatics
• Bioinformatics
• Imaging informatics
• Pharmacy informatics
• Dental informatics
• Veterinary informatics
• Consumer health informatics
• eHealth
• Clinical research informatics
• Translational research informatics
• etc
Medical Informatics
Medical Informatics is the branch of science concerned with the use of computers and communication technology to acquire, store, analyze, communicate, and display medical information and knowledge to facilitate understanding and improve the accuracy, timeliness, and reliability of decision making.
Medical informatics' and ‘Health informatics'
'Health informatics' is now tending to replace the previous term 'medical informatics', reflecting a widespread concern to define an information agenda for health services which recognises the role of citizens as agents in their own care, as well as the major information- handling roles of the non-medical healthcare professions.
Medical informatics concerned with optimal use of information to improve:
- Individual health - Health care - Public health - Research
Computers + communication technology
acquire, store, analyze, communicate, and display
Medical information + knowledge
facilitate , improve
Decision making
Public Health Informatics:
“the systematic application of information and computer science and technology to public health practice, research and learning”
Activities of public health informatics:
• Collection and storage of vital statistics
• Collection and reporting of communicable diseases
• Disease surveillance
• Display disease statistics and trends
• Immunization
• Hospital statistics
• others
Importance of Health Care Informatics The informatics focus on
- Acquisition of information - Storage of information - Use of information
• - In a specific setting or domain
• Health information cycle
Collect
Use store
Share
Health care informatics importance:
1- Facilitate measurement of outcomes and evaluation of interventions in real-time
2- Facilitate communication and coordination
of care among care team.
3- Allows tracking of patient health indicators over time.
4- Improves diagnostic accuracy
5- Improves patient care
6- Decreases medication and clinical errors 7- Reduces health care costs
8- Assess information and knowledge needs.
9- Support decision making process.
10- Others
Informatics Technology Tools of Health Informatics:
Computers
Clinical guidelines,
Formal medical terminologies,
Communication systems
Information Technology (IT)
“Is the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware’’
Informatics ≠ IT Information Technology is not Informatics
Information technology is hardware & software.
IT is to nouns, as informatics is to verbs.
Informatics helps IT ‘work appropriately Informatics focus on I not T I = information
T = Technology
Technology Revolution (Hardware) 1- Radio
2- Computers 3- Floppies 4- CD, DVD 5- Flash drive 6- Hard disk 7- Laptop 8- Smart phone 9- What is next
The internet
Is a worldwide, publicly accessible network of interconnected computer network that transmit data using the standard internet protocol (IP)
An electronic resource is a manifestation of a work that requires the use of a computer for access
Connection to the Internet:
There are three main ways to connect to the Internet
• Dial-Up
• High Speed/DSL
• Wireless Connection (Wi-Fi)
1- Dial-Up
• All you need is a computer, phone-line and Internet Service Provider! (ISP)
• Not as fast as other Internet connections, but often more affordable
ISP Internet
Your computer Landline
2- Cable/DSL
• Travels through fiber-optic cables underground
• Needs to be connected by a Modem to your computer
– Modem: A hub that connects the computer to the Internet
• Faster than Dial-up
3-Wi Fi
• Your computer must be a
“Wireless enabled” device
• Your computer can pick up signals from different wireless networks
• Some networks require
passwords or a subscription, others are free
Web browser:
A web-based program that displays the Internet Common Web Browsers:
• Internet Explorer: for Windows only
• Google Chrome: created by Google
• Mozilla Firefox: works on Mac & PC General Uses of internet:
1- Electronic mail (E-mail)
2- File transfer protocol (FTP)
3- Telnet 4- Research
5- Diagnostic and therapeutic purposes 6- Others
