What is Health Informatics?
Health Informatics combines the computer sciences and latest communication technologies with the biological and cognitive sciences to better address today’s healthcare problems through better data management, analysis, and transmission. Its importance will increase as technology advances amidst increasing shortages of skilled medical personnel. The impact can be seen in the laboratory setting as new discoveries are made, the patient setting with better information access and care, and the community setting where bioterrorism and epidemics are addressed. For more information on Health Informatics see Dr. Elmer Bernstam’s Overview of Health Informatics Presentation .
Health Informatics is the science of information management in healthcare, and its application to support clinical practice, decision-making and research. (Adapted from: Wyatt J Medical Informatics artifact or science? Methods Inf Med 1996;3:197-200) A useful model of the emergence of informatics is to consider the different roles of clinicians, management and IT services in health care. Each group has it s own perspective and frequently pull in different directions.
Health Informatics is the multidisciplinary scientific field concerned with the acquisition, storage, retrieval, communication, and optimal use of health information for problem solving and decision-making. Health Informatics has as its driving goals the improvement of health and healthcare, and the advancement of the biomedical and health sciences. Other names often used for this broad field include Medical Informatics or Biomedical Informatics. To advance the field, health informatics professionals develop, study, and utilize methods, approaches, and technologies to address challenges in the broad healthcare domain. In doing so, work in Health Informatics calls upon but is unique from computer science, information science, cognitive science, organizational management, and the sciences of the professions to which it is applied. The sub-disciplines of health informatics relate to various health-related professions, domains or activities to which informatics methods are applied. While t
