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Medical informatics uses technology to improve healthcare by organizing, analyzing and managing information. It includes clinical standards, terminology, usability and demonstrated value. Electronic health records are an example of its benefits, but challenges include privacy concerns and financial issues.
Medical informatics, also known as health informatics, is an interdisciplinary field of study that emphasizes the use of information technology to help organize, analyze, manage, and use information to improve health care. Its main objectives are to develop clinical standards and guidelines, formalize medical terminology, improve the usability of healthcare information systems to facilitate communication, and manage the flow of information from doctors to patients.
Medical informatics emerged as information technology applied to medicine, but has evolved to include applications in biostatistics, economics, business management, and cognitive psychology. German scientist Gustav Wagner developed the first professional organization for computer science in 1949. European countries started setting up university departments and specialized programs in the subject. It wasn’t until the 1960s, however, that the French coined the term medical informatics to formally define the field of health informatics.
America followed suit in the 1970s with its own programs, which coincided with the emergence of large-scale clinical information systems. The American Medical Informatics Association was founded in 1980 to provide support for this emerging discipline. Today, the National Library of Medicine funds medical informatics education at the graduate and postgraduate levels.
Major topics in medical informatics include standards, terminology, usability, and demonstrated value. The development of clinical standards and guidelines for data collection is a critical component. Standardizing processes and guidelines helps ensure that health data can be integrated into unrelated information systems. Related to standards is having a common medical vocabulary. Common terminology ensures that outcomes can be measured and reported consistently across practices, institutions and regions, such as comparing apples to apples rather than apples to oranges.
An effective health information system must pass the usability test. Usability refers to the ease with which a clinical information system can be integrated into existing practices without disrupting clinical workflow. The key to usability is an application that doesn’t require too steep a learning curve. A health information technology solution that shows demonstrated value, the last central theme, is one that creates measurable results that can be used to rationalize costs and improve the quality of patient care.
To illustrate the importance of the major themes, consider the electronic health record, a tool used to manage patient health care. Electronic health records, or EMRs, have traditionally been the domain of clinical informatics, which is a sub-component of medical informatics. EMR is patient-centric information, both personal and clinical, that a physician enters into a computer system, an initially lengthy process that is undone by potential cost savings.
After entering the information, the EMR can alert doctors to possible patient allergies and drug interactions, thus preventing harmful medical errors. Lab tests and prescriptions can then be ordered online for a patient. Computer networks allow patients, doctors and other experts to communicate with each other. It also provides an Internet-based drug solution that is not only convenient for the insurance company, but also for the patient. Ultimately, automating those processes reduces errors, increases reliability, streamlines the delivery of healthcare services to patients, and enables patients to make informed health choices.
For all the benefits medical informatics offers, a number of challenges continue to present obstacles. Existing data collection systems and methodologies should be revamped to comply with industry standards. Privacy concerns, such as recent health insurance portability and liability (HIPAA) laws, place limits on how patient information can be used. Finally, there are financial issues to consider. Putting together a complete healthcare IT system requires considerable resources, often discouraged due to lack of funds.
