Running head: HCL-600 FOUNDATIONS OF INFORMATICS 1

HCL-600 Foundations of Informatics

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EVOLUTION OF HEALTH INFORMATICS AS A DISCIPLINE AND ITS EVOLVING

IMPACT ON THE DELIVERY OF HEALTH CARE

Health informatics encompasses healthcare information of science, starting from

fundamental researches to applications in clinics. Health informatics compasses all the means of

promoting and understanding effective analysis, management, use of information and

organization in healthcare (Custis, Hawkins, & Thomason, 2016). Though it shares a general

range of interest with other healthcare disciplines and specialists, health informatics has

improved in its approaches and emphasis that makes it distinguishable from the others. People

who work as health informatics know both health care and information science. They understand

how to use, acquire retrieve, protect and store a range of information concerning medicine and

health. They also understand non-computerized and computerized systems of information “in

and out”. They are also familiar with medical terminologies, workflow, and clinical guidelines.

The significant stage that marks the development of health informatics is when computer-

generated health care data was discovered in the 1950s in the US. The government-sponsored

computer-based medical projects for the first time during this era, which were conducted by the

military, ‘the National Institute of Health (NIH) and other projects. Throughout the rest of the

decades that followed, some professional organizations emerged which reflected growing

interests in the field. The organizations include America Association for Medical Systems and

Informatics (AAMSI) and Symposium on Computer Applications in Medical Care (SCAMC),

among others

Health informatics sector emerged when technology in computer advanced, for the

management of large data. Earlier experimentations were carried out in the field of dentistry but

were not enough till in the 1960s when health informatics became standardized as a discipline of
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study. The first electronic medical record to appear was in 1970’s as soon as new nomenclature

for the specific services and disciplines were discovered. This is following the introduction of

bioinformatics sub-specializations as a study of biological data with DNA not becoming

exceptional. While health informatics technology continued to improve, requests for

standardized data exchange procedures also improved for fields such as pharmacy, radiology. In

recent days, imaging informatics is a unique specialized area of study for people who wish to

pursue a master's in Health Informatics ("Section 7 Education and Consumer Health

Information," 2015).

Public regulations and policies are vital in health informatics for establishment of

electronic structures of health systems. The government regulatory bodies develop policies

thereby make it easy for the execution of the implementation of the electronic health record. The

same bodies regulate systems to protect patients’ and providers' rights. According to the Privacy

Act of 1974, it controls information that is collected by the federal government and agencies.

The legislation allows patients to access information about them (Birkin, 2018). A legislation of

confidentiality of drug and alcohol abuse patients’ record rule allows privacy in federally

assisted drug or alcohol abuse program. Patient treatment and diagnosis remain confidential

information. These policies and legislative bodies ease information access and ensure

confidentiality in the information.

The contemporary scope of practice for informatics professionals includes; analysis of

data to help facilitate actions and decision making, developing of data-driven for patient health

improvement, collaboration with a variety of departments in health care systems for reduction in

expenses via strategic data analysis and implementing and designing tools that measures data and

patient care processes and effectiveness.

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The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) focuses on the

management of health information, they focus on the translation of data into usable forms of

information to advance healthcare and health of both populations and individuals. The American

Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) is a prominent organization that is concerned with

science, practice on information and education (Overhage, 2016). Healthcare Information and

Management System Society (HIMSS) and American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA)

are other organizations that are committed to technological, certification, quality, statistical and

standardization health informatics aspects. Health level seven (HL7) is an international

organization that is concerned with the standardization of information. These organizations have

helped improve healthcare systems through standardization of information. This enables health

care systems to deliver quality service. These organizations also make it easy to access

information concerning health and better patient’s health as well as the patients’ provider.

Health informatics will bring a greater impact on healthcare organizations and in health

care delivery in the next 3 to 5 years in the following ways; it will to dramatic saving, with

connected systems and electronic available, waste in health care will be solved. From laboratory

results gets the destination faster thereby enhancing time care delivery hence reducing

malpractice cases, health informatics also reduces errors, contributes to efficiency and increase

communication where there were costly obstruction & incompetence before. The second impact

of health impacts on health care systems is providing knowledge about patients, therapies,

medicines, diseases that can be easily be shared. The practice of medicine also gets better as

knowledge is passed between patients & providers. Finally, health informatics increase

coordination in healthcare systems (Kruse, Goswamy, Raval, & Marawi, 2016). Healthcare is

getting more specialized, meaning most patients are receiving cares from different people in one
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hospital stay. Due to increased specialists increased coordination has been in play and the next

coming three years healthcare service will be more efficient due to this. Hence, necessary

coordination is made necessary by the health informatics.

References

Birkin, M. (2018). Big data. Ubiquity, 2018(January), 1-7.

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Custis, L. M., Hawkins, S. Y., & Thomason, T. R. (2016). An innovative capstone health

care informatics clinical residency: Interprofessional team collaboration. Health

Informatics Journal, 23(1), 69-79.

Kruse, C. S., Goswamy, R., Raval, Y., & Marawi, S. (2016). Challenges and Opportunities

of Big Data in Health Care: A Systematic Review. JMIR Medical Informatics, 4(4),

e38.

Overhage, J. M. (2016). The Indiana Health Information Exchange. Health Information

Exchange, 267-279.

Section 7 Education and Consumer Health Information. (2015). Yearbook of Medical

Informatics, 24(01), 162-163.