Health Informatics Final PDF

# Medical Informatics Basics: Lecture 1 ## Basic Questions - Medical Informatics Definition - Medical Informatics as the Scientific Area - Medical Informatics Areas - Aspects of the Medical Informatics Fields - Clinical informatics - Biomedical informatics - Bioinformatics - Public...

# Medical Informatics Basics: Lecture 1 ## Basic Questions - Medical Informatics Definition - Medical Informatics as the Scientific Area - Medical Informatics Areas - Aspects of the Medical Informatics Fields - Clinical informatics - Biomedical informatics - Bioinformatics - Public health informatics - Nursing informatics - Dental informatics - Medical Cybernetics - Information Systems Examples ## 1. Medical Informatics **A)** Medical information science is the science of using system-analytic tools to develop procedures (algorithms) for management, process control, decision making and scientific analysis of medical knowledge. * *E.H. Shortliffe, The science of biomedical computing. Medical Informatics 1984;9:185-93.* **B)** Medical Informatics comprises the theoretical and practical aspects of information processing and communication, based on knowledge and experience derived from processes in medicine and health care. * *J.H. van Bemmel, The structure of medical informatics. Medical Informatics 1984;9:175-80.* **C)** In medical informatics, we develop and assess methods and systems for the acquisition, processing, and interpretation of patient data with the help of knowledge that is obtained in scientific research. * *J.H. van Bemmel and M.A. Musen, Handbook of Medical Informatics, Springer Verlag, 1997.* **D)** It is the intersection of information science, computer science, and health care. It deals with the resources, devices, and methods required to optimize the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information in health and biomedicine. * *Wikipedia, 2008.* ## 1. The Informatics - **Informatics (academic field):** A broad academic field encompassing human-computer interaction, information science, information technology, algorithms, and social science - **Computer science:** The study of complex systems, information, and computation using applied mathematics, electrical engineering, and software engineering techniques. - **Information science:** The study of the processing, management, and retrieval of Information - **Information technology:** The study, design, development, implementation, support, or management of computer-based information systems. ## 2. The Diagnostic-Therapeutic Cycle: Simplified View A diagram is shown which depicts a cycle with three steps: - **Step 1: Data Collection:** - History - Physical examinations - Laboratory and other tests - **Step 2: Decision Making** - **Step 3: Planning** The cycle goes from data on the left to information at the top, to diagnosis/assessment, and finally to therapy plan. ## 2. Levels of Automated Support A diagram is shown as a green bar chart. The chart represents human dependency on computer involvement as it increases in complexity: - **1: Communication and Telematics** - **2: Storage and Retrieval** - **3: Processing and Automation** - **4: Diagnosis and Decision Making** - **5: Therapy and Control** - **6: Research and Development** The chart shows that at a low level of complexity, human reliance on computer involvement is low, but at a higher level of complexity, humans rely more on the computer. ## 3. Examples of Medical Informatics Areas A diagram is shown that shows the following hierarchy: - **Health Informatics:** The top level - **Medical Informatics** branches from Health Informatics to the next level. - **Nursing Informatics, Public Health Informatics**, and **Public Health Informatics** all branch from Medical Informatics to the next level. - **Clinical Informatics, Bioinformatics** branch from Medical Informatics to the next level. - **Dental Informatics, Veterinary Informatics** both branch from their parent informatics to the next level. ## 4. Aspects of the Medical Informatics Fields A diagram is shown depicting the various aspects of the medical informatics fields: - **Information age health care** on the left, and **Industrial age medicine** on the right. - **Public health** goes vertically down the left side. - **Clinical medicine** goes vertically down the right side. - **Cyber medicine, Telemedicine, Ambulatory medicine, and Hospital medicine** all branch from top to bottom. - **Prevention and self help, Self care, Assisted care, and Disease management** all branch down from their parent medicine. Lastly, **Consumer health informatics** and **Provider oriented Medical informatics** both branch from the left and right sides, respectively. The diagram shows the focus of traditional medical informatics on provider oriented medicine, while new medical informatics focuses more on consumer health. ## 5. Clinical Informatics It is a sub-field of medical informatics. It is a combination of information science, computer science, and clinical science designed to assist in the management and processing of data, information, and knowledge to support the practice and delivery of clinical care. * *Shortliffe and Perreault, Medical Informatics: Computing applications in health care and biomedicine* ## 6. Biomedical Informatics It is concerned with the study and application of information technology and computer science, as well as decision-making, human problem solving, cognitive science, standards, policies, and human factors in the practice of biomedical science, medicine and healthcare, and is most commonly used this way in the USA. ## 7. Bioinformatics Bioinformatics and computational biology involve the use of techniques including applied mathematics, informatics, statistics, computer science, artificial intelligence, chemistry, and biochemistry to solve biological problems usually on the molecular level. ## 8. Public Health Informatics Public Health Informatics has been defined as the systematic application of information and computer science and technology to public health practice, research, and learning. **Major tasks:** - Collection of public health data - Storage of public health data - Analysis of public health data ## 9. Nursing Informatics **A)** It is a specialty of healthcare informatics that deals with supporting nursing through information systems in delivery, documentation, administration, and evaluation of patient care and the prevention of Diseases. * *Wikipedia, 2008* **B)** It is a specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, and knowledge in nursing practice. * *American Nurses Association's Scope and Standards for Nursing Informatics Practice, 2006* ## 10. Dental Informatics Dental Informatics is the application of computer and information science to improve dental practice, research, education, and management. It can be considered a subset of medical informatics and biomedical informatics. It improves patient care by improving efficiency and effectiveness in different areas of a common dental practice: - Administration - Clinical care - Charting records - Patient education ## 11. Medical Cybernetics Medical Cybernetics is a field of applied cybernetics that utilizes the concepts of cybernetics to medical research and practice. It covers an emerging working program for the applications of systems, communications theory, connectionism, and decision theory on biomedical research and health-related questions. **Topics:** - **Systems Theory in medical sciences:** Searching for and modeling of physiological dynamics. - **Medical information and Communication Theory:** Mathematically describes signaling processes and information storage in different physiological layers. - **Connectionism:** Describes information processing in neural networks. - **Medical Decision Theory:** Gather evidence-based foundations for decision making in the clinical setting. ## Technologies Required - High Speed Computers - Large Primary Memory - Massive and Fast Storage Devices (disk) - Graphical Devices (high resolution) - Digital X-Ray, Sonograms, etc. - High Speed Network - Mobile and Handheld Interface Devices - Scanning Technologies (Bar Code, OCR) - Voice Processing Hardware - Database Management Systems - Graphical Software - IR Software - AI software - Voice Recognition and Text to Speech Software - Decision Support Software - Statistical Analysis Software - Application Specific Software - Fault Tolerant Systems