Health Informatics for Development: a Three-pronged Strategy of Partnerships, Standards, and Mobile Health. Contribution of the IMIA Working Group on Health Informatics for Development.

PubMed

Marcelo, A; Adejumo, A; Luna, D

2011-01-01

Describe the issues surrounding health informatics in developing countries and the challenges faced by practitioners in building internal capacity. From these issues, the authors propose cost-effective strategies that can fast track health informatics development in these low to medium income countries (LMICs). The authors conducted a review of literature and consulted key opinion leaders who have experience with health informatics implementations around the world. Despite geographic and cultural differences, many LMICs share similar challenges and opportunities in developing health informatics. Partnerships, standards, and inter-operability are well known components of successful informatics programs. Establishing partnerships can be comprised of formal inter-institutional collaborations on training and research, collaborative open source software development, and effective use of social networking. Lacking legacy systems, LMICs can discuss standards and inter-operability more openly and have greater potential for success. Lastly, since cellphones are pervasive in developing countries, they can be leveraged as access points for delivering and documenting health services in remote under-served areas. Mobile health or mHealth gives LMICs a unique opportunity to leapfrog through most issues that have plagued health informatics in developed countries. By employing this proposed roadmap, LMICs can now develop capacity for health informatics using appropriate and cost-effective technologies.

Recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on education in health and medical informatics.

PubMed

2004-01-01

The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) agreed on international recommendations in health informatics / medical informatics education. These should help to establish courses, course tracks or even complete programs in this field, to further develop existing educational activities in the various nations and to support international initiatives concerning education in health and medical informatics (HMI), particularly international activities in educating HMI specialists and the sharing of courseware. The IMIA recommendations centre on educational needs for health care professionals to acquire knowledge and skills in information processing and information and communication technology. The educational needs are described as a three-dimensional framework. The dimensions are: 1) professionals in health care (physicians, nurses, HMI professionals, ...), 2) type of specialisation in health and medical informatics (IT users, HMI specialists) and 3) stage of career progression (bachelor, master, ...). Learning outcomes are defined in terms of knowledge and practical skills for health care professionals in their role (a) as IT user and (b) as HMI specialist. Recommendations are given for courses/course tracks in HMI as part of educational programs in medicine, nursing, health care management, dentistry, pharmacy, public health, health record administration, and informatics/computer science as well as for dedicated programs in HMI (with bachelor, master or doctor degree). To support education in HMI, IMIA offers to award a certificate for high quality HMI education and supports information exchange on programs and courses in HMI through a WWW server of its Working Group on Health and Medical Informatics Education (http://www.imia.org/wg1).

Clinical Microbiology Informatics

PubMed Central

Sintchenko, Vitali; Rauch, Carol A.; Pantanowitz, Liron

2014-01-01

SUMMARY The clinical microbiology laboratory has responsibilities ranging from characterizing the causative agent in a patient's infection to helping detect global disease outbreaks. All of these processes are increasingly becoming partnered more intimately with informatics. Effective application of informatics tools can increase the accuracy, timeliness, and completeness of microbiology testing while decreasing the laboratory workload, which can lead to optimized laboratory workflow and decreased costs. Informatics is poised to be increasingly relevant in clinical microbiology, with the advent of total laboratory automation, complex instrument interfaces, electronic health records, clinical decision support tools, and the clinical implementation of microbial genome sequencing. This review discusses the diverse informatics aspects that are relevant to the clinical microbiology laboratory, including the following: the microbiology laboratory information system, decision support tools, expert systems, instrument interfaces, total laboratory automation, telemicrobiology, automated image analysis, nucleic acid sequence databases, electronic reporting of infectious agents to public health agencies, and disease outbreak surveillance. The breadth and utility of informatics tools used in clinical microbiology have made them indispensable to contemporary clinical and laboratory practice. Continued advances in technology and development of these informatics tools will further improve patient and public health care in the future. PMID:25278581

Towards health informatics 3.0. Editorial.

PubMed

Kulikowski, Casimir A; Geissbuhler, Antoine

2011-01-01

To provide an editorial introduction to the 2011 IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics with an overview of its contents and contributors. A brief overview of the main theme, and an outline of the purposes, contents, format, and acknowledgment of contributions for the 2011 IMIA Yearbook. This 2011 issue of the IMIA Yearbook highlights important developments in the development of Web 3.0 capabilities that are increasing in Health Informatics, impacting the activities in research, education and practice in this interdisciplinary field. There has been steady progress towards introducing semantics into informatics systems through more sophisticated representations of knowledge in their underlying information. Health Informatics 3.0 capabilities are identified from the recent literature, illustrated by selected papers published during the past 12 months, and articles reported by IMIA Working Groups. Surveys of the main research sub-fields in biomedical informatics in the Yearbook provide an overview of progress and current challenges across the spectrum of the discipline, focusing on Web 3.0 challenges and opportunities.

Recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on education in health and medical informatics.

PubMed

2000-08-01

The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) agreed on international recommendations in health informatics/medical informatics education. These should help to establish courses, course tracks or even complete programs in this field, to further develop existing educational activities in the various nations and to support international initiatives concerning education in health and medical informatics (HMI), particularly international activities in educating HMI specialists and the sharing of courseware. The IMIA recommendations centre on educational needs for healthcare professionals to acquire knowledge and skills in information processing and information and communication technology. The educational needs are described as a three-dimensional framework. The dimensions are: 1) professionals in healthcare (physicians, nurses, HMI professionals, ...), 2) type of specialisation in health and medical informatics (IT users, HMI specialists) and 3) stage of career progression (bachelor, master, ...). Learning outcomes are defined in terms of knowledge and practical skills for healthcare professionals in their role (a) as IT user and (b) as HMI specialist. Recommendations are given for courses/course tracks in HMI as part of educational programs in medicine, nursing, healthcare management, dentistry, pharmacy, public health, health record administration, and informatics/computer science as well as for dedicated programs in HMI (with bachelor, master or doctor degree). To support education in HMI, IMIA offers to award a certificate for high quality HMI education and supports information exchange on programs and courses in HMI through a WWW server of its Working Group on Health and Medical Informatics Education (http:www.imia.org/wg1).

A National Agenda for Public Health Informatics

PubMed Central

Yasnoff, William A.; Overhage, J. Marc; Humphreys, Betsy L.; LaVenture, Martin

2001-01-01

The AMIA 2001 Spring Congress brought together members of the the public health and informatics communities to develop a national agenda for public health informatics. Discussions of funding and governance; architecture and infrastructure; standards and vocabulary; research, evaluation, and best practices; privacy, confidentiality, and security; and training and workforce resulted in 74 recommendations with two key themes—that all stakeholders need to be engaged in coordinated activities related to public health information architecture, standards, confidentiality, best practices, and research; and that informatics training is needed throughout the public health workforce. Implementation of this consensus agenda will help promote progress in the application of information technology to improve public health. PMID:11687561

Consumer Health Informatics: Past, Present, and Future of a Rapidly Evolving Domain.

PubMed

Demiris, G

2016-05-20

Consumer Health Informatics (CHI) is a rapidly growing domain within the field of biomedical and health informatics. The objective of this paper is to reflect on the past twenty five years and showcase informatics concepts and applications that led to new models of care and patient empowerment, and to predict future trends and challenges for the next 25 years. We discuss concepts and systems based on a review and analysis of published literature in the consumer health informatics domain in the last 25 years. The field was introduced with the vision that one day patients will be in charge of their own health care using informatics tools and systems. Scientific literature in the field originally focused on ways to assess the quality and validity of available printed health information, only to grow significantly to cover diverse areas such as online communities, social media, and shared decision-making. Concepts such as home telehealth, mHealth, and the quantified-self movement, tools to address transparency of health care organizations, and personal health records and portals provided significant milestones in the field. Consumers are able to actively participate in the decision-making process and to engage in health care processes and decisions. However, challenges such as health literacy and the digital divide have hindered us from maximizing the potential of CHI tools with a significant portion of underserved populations unable to access and utilize them. At the same time, at a global scale consumer tools can increase access to care for underserved populations in developing countries. The field continues to grow and emerging movements such as precision medicine and the sharing economy will introduce new opportunities and challenges.

Personal Health, Person-centred Health and Personalised Medicine - Concepts, Consumers, Confusion and Challenges in the Informatics World.

PubMed

Rigby, M

2012-01-01

To define and assess 'Consumer Health Informatics' and related emergent issues in an era of new media and of personalisation of care, and from this to define what actions need to be taken to optimise benefits and address risks. Definition of key concepts; review of health personalisation, emergent health information and communication technologies and knowledge sources available to citizens and social media; and identification of unresolved issues threatening optimal use of each. A structured review supported by citations and examples. Several new aspects of consumer health informatics are emerging, including new knowledge sources, feedback on treatments and care providers, on-line videos, and a new generation of patient experience sites including those which are for profit and seek to influence treatment paradigms. Not just the information usage, but also the potential social challenges and malicious abuses, are global issues, and also transcend the traditional health community and thus should be addressed in partnership with other global agencies.

Clinical informatics in undergraduate teaching of health informatics.

PubMed

Pantazi, Stefan V; Pantazi, Felicia; Daly, Karen

2011-01-01

We are reporting on a recent experience with Health Informatics (HI) teaching at undergraduate degree level to an audience of HI and Pharmacy students. The important insight is that effective teaching of clinical informatics must involve highly interactive, applied components in addition to the traditional theoretical material. This is in agreement with general literature underlining the importance of simulations and role playing in teaching and is well supported by our student evaluation results. However, the viability and sustainability of such approaches to teaching hinges on significant course preparation efforts. These efforts consist of time-consuming investigations of informatics technologies, applications and systems followed by the implementation of workable solutions to a wide range of technical problems. In effect, this approach to course development is an involved process that relies on a special form of applied research whose technical complexity could explain the dearth of published reports on similar approaches in HI education. Despite its difficulties, we argue that this approach can be used to set a baseline for clinical informatics training at undergraduate level and that its implications for HI education in Canada are of importance.

Clinical microbiology informatics.

PubMed

Rhoads, Daniel D; Sintchenko, Vitali; Rauch, Carol A; Pantanowitz, Liron

2014-10-01

The clinical microbiology laboratory has responsibilities ranging from characterizing the causative agent in a patient's infection to helping detect global disease outbreaks. All of these processes are increasingly becoming partnered more intimately with informatics. Effective application of informatics tools can increase the accuracy, timeliness, and completeness of microbiology testing while decreasing the laboratory workload, which can lead to optimized laboratory workflow and decreased costs. Informatics is poised to be increasingly relevant in clinical microbiology, with the advent of total laboratory automation, complex instrument interfaces, electronic health records, clinical decision support tools, and the clinical implementation of microbial genome sequencing. This review discusses the diverse informatics aspects that are relevant to the clinical microbiology laboratory, including the following: the microbiology laboratory information system, decision support tools, expert systems, instrument interfaces, total laboratory automation, telemicrobiology, automated image analysis, nucleic acid sequence databases, electronic reporting of infectious agents to public health agencies, and disease outbreak surveillance. The breadth and utility of informatics tools used in clinical microbiology have made them indispensable to contemporary clinical and laboratory practice. Continued advances in technology and development of these informatics tools will further improve patient and public health care in the future. Copyright © 2014, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Consumer Health Informatics: Past, Present, and Future of a Rapidly Evolving Domain

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Summary Objectives Consumer Health Informatics (CHI) is a rapidly growing domain within the field of biomedical and health informatics. The objective of this paper is to reflect on the past twenty five years and showcase informatics concepts and applications that led to new models of care and patient empowerment, and to predict future trends and challenges for the next 25 years. Methods We discuss concepts and systems based on a review and analysis of published literature in the consumer health informatics domain in the last 25 years. Results The field was introduced with the vision that one day patients will be in charge of their own health care using informatics tools and systems. Scientific literature in the field originally focused on ways to assess the quality and validity of available printed health information, only to grow significantly to cover diverse areas such as online communities, social media, and shared decision-making. Concepts such as home telehealth, mHealth, and the quantified-self movement, tools to address transparency of health care organizations, and personal health records and portals provided significant milestones in the field. Conclusion Consumers are able to actively participate in the decision-making process and to engage in health care processes and decisions. However, challenges such as health literacy and the digital divide have hindered us from maximizing the potential of CHI tools with a significant portion of underserved populations unable to access and utilize them. At the same time, at a global scale consumer tools can increase access to care for underserved populations in developing countries. The field continues to grow and emerging movements such as precision medicine and the sharing economy will introduce new opportunities and challenges. PMID:27199196

Health Informatics 3.0 and other increasingly dispersed technologies require even greater trust: promoting safe evidence-based health informatics. Contribution of the IMIA Working Group on Technology Assessment & Quality Development in Health Informatics.

PubMed

Rigby, M; Ammenwerth, E; Talmon, J; Nykänen, P; Brender, J; de Keizer, N

2011-01-01

Health informatics is generally less committed to a scientific evidence-based approach than any other area of health science, which is an unsound position. Introducing the new Web 3.0 paradigms into health IT applications can unleash a further great potential, able to integrate and distribute data from multiple sources. The counter side is that it makes the user and the patient evermore dependent on the 'black box' of the system, and the re-use of the data remote from the author and initial context. Thus anticipatory consideration of uses, and proactive analysis of evidence of effects, are imperative, as only when a clinical technology can be proven to be trustworthy and safe should it be implemented widely - as is the case with other health technologies. To argue for promoting evidence-based health informatics as systems become more powerful and pro-active yet more dispersed and remote; and evaluation as the means of generating the necessary scientific evidence base. To present ongoing IMIA and EFMI initiatives in this field. Critical overview of recent developments in health informatics evaluation, alongside the precedents of other health technologies, summarising current initiatives and the new challenges presented by Health Informatics 3.0. Web 3.0 should be taken as an opportunity to move health informatics from being largely unaccountable to one of being an ethical and responsible science-based domain. Recent and planned activities of the EFMI and IMIA working groups have significantly progressed key initiatives. Concurrent with the emergence of Web 3.0 as a means of new-generation diffuse health information systems comes an increasing need for an evidence-based culture in health informatics.

Reducing Health Cost: Health Informatics and Knowledge Management as a Business and Communication Tool

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gyampoh-Vidogah, Regina; Moreton, Robert; Sallah, David

Health informatics has the potential to improve the quality and provision of care while reducing the cost of health care delivery. However, health informatics is often falsely regarded as synonymous with information management (IM). This chapter (i) provides a clear definition and characteristic benefits of health informatics and information management in the context of health care delivery, (ii) identifies and explains the difference between health informatics (HI) and managing knowledge (KM) in relation to informatics business strategy and (iii) elaborates the role of information communication technology (ICT) KM environment. This Chapter further examines how KM can be used to improve health service informatics costs, and identifies the factors that could affect its implementation and explains some of the reasons driving the development of electronic health record systems. This will assist in avoiding higher costs and errors, while promoting the continued industrialisation of KM delivery across health care communities.

Developing Informatics Tools and Strategies for Consumer-centered Health Communication

PubMed Central

Keselman, Alla; Logan, Robert; Smith, Catherine Arnott; Leroy, Gondy; Zeng-Treitler, Qing

2008-01-01

As the emphasis on individuals' active partnership in health care grows, so does the public's need for effective, comprehensible consumer health resources. Consumer health informatics has the potential to provide frameworks and strategies for designing effective health communication tools that empower users and improve their health decisions. This article presents an overview of the consumer health informatics field, discusses promising approaches to supporting health communication, and identifies challenges plus direction for future research and development. The authors' recommendations emphasize the need for drawing upon communication and social science theories of information behavior, reaching out to consumers via a range of traditional and novel formats, gaining better understanding of the public's health information needs, and developing informatics solutions for tailoring resources to users' needs and competencies. This article was written as a scholarly outreach and leadership project by members of the American Medical Informatics Association's Consumer Health Informatics Working Group. PMID:18436895

Recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on Education in Biomedical and Health Informatics. First Revision.

PubMed

Mantas, John; Ammenwerth, Elske; Demiris, George; Hasman, Arie; Haux, Reinhold; Hersh, William; Hovenga, Evelyn; Lun, K C; Marin, Heimar; Martin-Sanchez, Fernando; Wright, Graham

2010-01-07

Objective: The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) agreed on revising the existing international recommendations in health informatics/medical informatics education. These should help to establish courses, course tracks or even complete programs in this field, to further develop existing educational activities in the various nations and to support international initiatives concerning education in biomedical and health informatics (BMHI), particularly international activities in educating BMHI specialists and the sharing of courseware. Method: An IMIA task force, nominated in 2006, worked on updating the recommendations' first version. These updates have been broadly discussed and refined by members of IMIA's National Member Societies, IMIA's Academic Institutional Members and by members of IMIA's Working Group on Health and Medical Informatics Education. Results and Conclusions: The IMIA recommendations center on educational needs for health care professionals to acquire knowledge and skills in information processing and information and communication technology. The educational needs are described as a three-dimensional framework. The dimensions are: 1) professionals in health care (e.g. physicians, nurses, BMHI professionals), 2) type of specialization in BMHI (IT users, BMHI specialists), and 3) stage of career progression (bachelor, master, doctorate). Learning outcomes are defined in terms of knowledge and practical skills for health care professionals in their role a) as IT user and b) as BMHI specialist. Recommendations are given for courses/course tracks in BMHI as part of educational programs in medicine, nursing, health care management, dentistry, pharmacy, public health, health record administration, and informatics/computer science as well as for dedicated programs in BMHI (with bachelor, master or doctor degree). To support education in BMHI, IMIA offers to award a certificate for high-quality BMHI education. It supports information

Building a Culture of Health Informatics Innovation and Entrepreneurship: A New Frontier.

PubMed

Househ, Mowafa; Alshammari, Riyad; Almutairi, Mariam; Jamal, Amr; Alshoaib, Saleh

2015-01-01

Entrepreneurship and innovation within the health informatics (HI) scientific community are relatively sluggish when compared to other disciplines such as computer science and engineering. Healthcare in general, and specifically, the health informatics scientific community needs to embrace more innovative and entrepreneurial practices. In this paper, we explore the concepts of innovation and entrepreneurship as they apply to the health informatics scientific community. We also outline several strategies to improve the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship within the health informatics scientific community such as: (I) incorporating innovation and entrepreneurship in health informatics education; (II) creating strong linkages with industry and healthcare organizations; (III) supporting national health innovation and entrepreneurship competitions; (IV) creating a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship within healthcare organizations; (V) developing health informatics policies that support innovation and entrepreneurship based on internationally recognized standards; and (VI) develop an health informatics entrepreneurship ecosystem. With these changes, we conclude that embracing health innovation and entrepreneurship may be more readily accepted over the long-term within the health informatics scientific community.

Public Health, Population Health, and Epidemiology Informatics: Recent Research and Trends in the United States.

PubMed

Massoudi, B L; Chester, K G

2017-08-01

Objectives: To survey advances in public and population health and epidemiology informatics over the past 18 months. Methods: We conducted a review of English-language research works conducted in the domain of public and population health informatics and published in MEDLINE or Web of Science between January 2015 and June 2016 where information technology or informatics was a primary subject or main component of the study methodology. Selected articles were presented using a thematic analysis based on the 2011 American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Public Health Informatics Agenda tracks as a typology. Results: Results are given within the context developed by Dixon et al., (2015) and key themes from the 2011 AMIA Public Health Informatics Agenda. Advances are presented within a socio-technical infrastructure undergirded by a trained, competent public health workforce, systems development to meet the business needs of the practice field, and research that evaluates whether those needs are adequately met. The ability to support and grow the infrastructure depends on financial sustainability. Conclusions: The fields of public health and population health informatics continue to grow, with the most notable developments focused on surveillance, workforce development, and linking to or providing clinical services, which encompassed population health informatics advances. Very few advances addressed the need to improve communication, coordination, and consistency with the field of informatics itself, as identified in the AMIA agenda. This will likely result in the persistence of the silos of public health information systems that currently exist. Future research activities need to aim toward a holistic approach of informatics across the enterprise. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart.

A survey of public health and consumer health informatics programmes and courses in Canadian universities and colleges.

PubMed

Arocha, Jose F; Hoffman-Goetz, Laurie

2012-12-01

As information technology becomes more widely used by people for health-care decisions, training in consumer and public health informatics will be important for health practitioners working directly with the public. Using information from 74 universities and colleges across Canada, we searched websites and online calendars for programmes (undergraduate, graduate) regarding availability and scope of education in programmes, courses and topics geared to public health and/or consumer health informatics. Of the 74 institutions searched, 31 provided some content relevant to health informatics (HI) and 8 institutions offered full HI-related programmes. Of these 8 HI programmes, only 1 course was identified with content relevant to public health informatics and 1 with content about consumer health informatics. Some institutions (n  =  22) - which do not offer HI-degree programmes - provide health informatics-related courses, including one on consumer health informatics. We found few programmes, courses or topic areas within courses in Canadian universities and colleges that focus on consumer or public health informatics education. Given the increasing emphasis on personal responsibility for health and health-care decision-making, skills training for health professionals who help consumers navigate the Internet should be considered in health informatics education.

Developing a Capstone Course within a Health Informatics Program

PubMed Central

Hackbarth, Gary; Cata, Teuta; Cole, Laura

2012-01-01

This article discusses the ongoing development of a health informatics capstone program in a Midwest university from the hiring of a program coordinator to the development of a capstone course, through initial student results. University health informatics programs require a strong academic program to be successful but also require a spirited program coordinator to manage resources and organize an effective capstone course. This is particularly true of health informatics master's programs that support health industry career fields, whereby employers can locate and work with a pool of qualified applicants. The analysis of students’ logs confirms that students’ areas of focus and concern are consistent with course objectives and company work requirements during the work-study portion of the student capstone project. The article further discusses lessons learned and future improvements to be made in the health informatics capstone course. PMID:22783150

Personal health and consumer informatics. The impact of health oriented social media applications on health outcomes.

PubMed

Gibbons, M C

2013-01-01

The rapid evolution in the world-wide use of Social Media tools suggests the emergence of a global phenomenon that may have implications in the Personal Health and Consumer Health Informatics domains. However the impact of these tools on health outcomes is not known. The goal of this research was to review the randomized controlled trial (RCT) evidence of the impact of health oriented Social Media informatics tools on health outcomes. Evaluations of Social Media consumer health tools were systematically reviewed. Research was limited to studies published in the English language, published in Medline, published in the calendar year 2012 and limited to studies that utilized a RCT methodological design. Two high quality Randomized Controlled Trials among over 600 articles published in Medline were identified. These studies indicate that Social Media interventions may be able to significantly improve pain control among patients with chronic pain and enhance weight loss maintenance among individuals attempting to lose weight. Significantly more research needs to be done to confirm these early findings, evaluate additional health outcomes and further evaluate emerging health oriented Social Media interventions. Chronic pain and weight control have both socially oriented determinants. These studies suggest that understanding the social component of a disease may ultimately provide novel therapeutic targets and socio-clinical interventional strategies.

Public Health Platforms: An Emerging Informatics Approach to Health Professional Learning and Development

PubMed Central

Gray, Kathleen

2016-01-01

Health informatics has a major role to play in optimising the management and use of data, information and knowledge in health systems. As health systems undergo digital transformation, it is important to consider informatics approaches not only to curriculum content but also to the design of learning environments and learning activities for health professional learning and development. An example of such an informatics approach is the use of large-scale, integrated public health platforms on the Internet as part of health professional learning and development. This article describes selected examples of such platforms, with a focus on how they may influence the direction of health professional learning and development. Significance for public health The landscape of healthcare systems, public health systems, health research systems and professional education systems is fragmented, with many gaps and silos. More sophistication in the management of health data, information, and knowledge, based on public health informatics expertise, is needed to tackle key issues of prevention, promotion and policy-making. Platform technologies represent an emerging large-scale, highly integrated informatics approach to public health, combining the technologies of Internet, the web, the cloud, social technologies, remote sensing and/or mobile apps into an online infrastructure that can allow more synergies in work within and across these systems. Health professional curricula need updating so that the health workforce has a deep and critical understanding of the way that platform technologies are becoming the foundation of the health sector. PMID:27190977

Time for TIGER to ROAR! Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform.

PubMed

O'Connor, Siobhan; Hubner, Ursula; Shaw, Toria; Blake, Rachelle; Ball, Marion

2017-11-01

Information Technology (IT) continues to evolve and develop with electronic devices and systems becoming integral to healthcare in every country. This has led to an urgent need for all professions working in healthcare to be knowledgeable and skilled in informatics. The Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER) Initiative was established in 2006 in the United States to develop key areas of informatics in nursing. One of these was to integrate informatics competencies into nursing curricula and life-long learning. In 2009, TIGER developed an informatics competency framework which outlines numerous IT competencies required for professional practice and this work helped increase the emphasis of informatics in nursing education standards in the United States. In 2012, TIGER expanded to the international community to help synthesise informatics competencies for nurses and pool educational resources in health IT. This transition led to a new interprofessional, interdisciplinary approach, as health informatics education needs to expand to other clinical fields and beyond. In tandem, a European Union (EU) - United States (US) Collaboration on eHealth began a strand of work which focuses on developing the IT skills of the health workforce to ensure technology can be adopted and applied in healthcare. One initiative within this is the EU*US eHealth Work Project, which started in 2016 and is mapping the current structure and gaps in health IT skills and training needs globally. It aims to increase educational opportunities by developing a model for open and scalable access to eHealth training programmes. With this renewed initiative to incorporate informatics into the education and training of nurses and other health professionals globally, it is time for educators, researchers, practitioners and policy makers to join in and ROAR with TIGER. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Person-generated Data in Self-quantification. A Health Informatics Research Program.

PubMed

Gray, Kathleen; Martin-Sanchez, Fernando J; Lopez-Campos, Guillermo H; Almalki, Manal; Merolli, Mark

2017-01-09

The availability of internet-connected mobile, wearable and ambient consumer technologies, direct-to-consumer e-services and peer-to-peer social media sites far outstrips evidence about the efficiency, effectiveness and efficacy of using them in healthcare applications. The aim of this paper is to describe one approach to build a program of health informatics research, so as to generate rich and robust evidence about health data and information processing in self-quantification and associated healthcare and health outcomes. The paper summarises relevant health informatics research approaches in the literature and presents an example of developing a program of research in the Health and Biomedical Informatics Centre (HaBIC) at the University of Melbourne. The paper describes this program in terms of research infrastructure, conceptual models, research design, research reporting and knowledge sharing. The paper identifies key outcomes from integrative and multiple-angle approaches to investigating the management of information and data generated by use of this Centre's collection of wearable, mobiles and other devices in health self-monitoring experiments. These research results offer lessons for consumers, developers, clinical practitioners and biomedical and health informatics researchers. Health informatics is increasingly called upon to make sense of emerging self-quantification and other digital health phenomena that are well beyond the conventions of healthcare in which the field of informatics originated and consolidated. To make a substantial contribution to optimise the aims, processes and outcomes of health self-quantification needs further work at scale in multi-centre collaborations for this Centre and for health informatics researchers generally.

Middle East and North African Health Informatics Association (MENAHIA): Building Sustainable Collaboration.

PubMed

Al-Shorbaji, Najeeb; Househ, Mowafa; Taweel, Adel; Alanizi, Abdullah; Mohammed, Bennani Othmani; Abaza, Haitham; Bawadi, Hala; Rasuly, Hamayon; Alyafei, Khalid; Fernandez-Luque, Luis; Shouman, Mohamed; El-Hassan, Osama; Hussein, Rada; Alshammari, Riyad; Mandil, Salah; Shouman, Sarah; Taheri, Shahrad; Emara, Tamer; Dalhem, Wasmiya; Al-Hamdan, Zaid; Serhier, Zineb

2018-04-22

There has been a growing interest in Health Informatics applications, research, and education within the Middle East and North African Region over the past twenty years. People of this region share similar cultural and religious values, primarily speak the Arabic language, and have similar health care related issues, which are in dire need of being addressed. Health Informatics efforts, organizations, and initiatives within the region have been largely under-represented within, but not ignored by, the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA). Attempts to create bonds and collaboration between the different organizations of the region have remained scattered, and often, resulted in failure despite the fact that the need for a united health informatics collaborative within the region has never been more crucial than today. During the 2017 MEDINFO, held in Hangzhou, China, a new organization, the Middle East and North African Health Informatics Association (MENAHIA) was conceived as a regional non-governmental organization to promote and facilitate health informatics uptake within the region endorsing health informatics research and educational initiatives of the 22 countries represented within the region. This paper provides an overview of the collaboration and efforts to date in forming MENAHIA and displays the variety of initiatives that are already occurring within the MENAHIA region, which MENAHIA will help, endorse, support, share, and improve within the international forum of health informatics. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart.

Data, Staff, and Money: Leadership Reflections on the Future of Public Health Informatics.

PubMed

Leider, Jonathon P; Shah, Gulzar H; Williams, Karmen S; Gupta, Akrati; Castrucci, Brian C

Health informatics can play a critical role in supporting local health departments' (LHDs') delivery of certain essential public health services and improving evidence base for decision support. However, LHDs' informatics capacities are below an optimum level. Efforts to build such capacities face ongoing challenges. Moreover, little is known about LHD leaders' desires for the future of public health informatics. Conduct a qualitative analysis of LHDs' future informatics plans, perceived barriers to accomplishing those plans, and potential impact of future advances in public health informatics on the work of the public health enterprise. This research presents findings from 49 in-depth key informant interviews with public health leaders and informatics professionals from LHDs, representing insights from across the United States. Interviewees were selected on the basis of the size of the population their LHD serves, as well as level of informatics capacity. Interviews were transcribed, verified, and double coded. Major barriers to doing more with informatics included staff capacity and training, financial constraints, dependency on state health agency, and small LHD size/lack of regionalization. When asked about the role of leadership in expanding informatics, interviewees said that leaders could make it a priority through (1) learning more about informatics and (2) creating appropriate budgets for integrated information systems. Local health department leaders said that they desired data that were timely and geographically specific. In addition, LHD leaders said that they desired greater access to clinical data, especially around chronic disease indicators. Local health department leadership desires to have timely or even real-time data. Local health departments have a great potential to benefit from informatics, particularly electronic health records in advancing their administrative practices and service delivery, but financial and human capital represents the

A UML-based meta-framework for system design in public health informatics.

PubMed

Orlova, Anna O; Lehmann, Harold

2002-01-01

The National Agenda for Public Health Informatics calls for standards in data and knowledge representation within public health, which requires a multi-level framework that links all aspects of public health. The literature of public health informatics and public health informatics application were reviewed. A UML-based systems analysis was performed. Face validity of results was evaluated in analyzing the public health domain of lead poisoning. The core class of the UML-based system of public health is the Public Health Domain, which is associated with multiple Problems, for which Actors provide Perspectives. Actors take Actions that define, generate, utilize and/or evaluate Data Sources. The life cycle of the domain is a sequence of activities attributed to its problems that spirals through multiple iterations and realizations within a domain. The proposed Public Health Informatics Meta-Framework broadens efforts in applying informatics principles to the field of public health

A Repository of Codes of Ethics and Technical Standards in Health Informatics

PubMed Central

Zaïane, Osmar R.

2014-01-01

We present a searchable repository of codes of ethics and standards in health informatics. It is built using state-of-the-art search algorithms and technologies. The repository will be potentially beneficial for public health practitioners, researchers, and software developers in finding and comparing ethics topics of interest. Public health clinics, clinicians, and researchers can use the repository platform as a one-stop reference for various ethics codes and standards. In addition, the repository interface is built for easy navigation, fast search, and side-by-side comparative reading of documents. Our selection criteria for codes and standards are two-fold; firstly, to maintain intellectual property rights, we index only codes and standards freely available on the internet. Secondly, major international, regional, and national health informatics bodies across the globe are surveyed with the aim of understanding the landscape in this domain. We also look at prevalent technical standards in health informatics from major bodies such as the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Our repository contains codes of ethics from the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), the iHealth Coalition (iHC), the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the Australasian College of Health Informatics (ACHI), the British Computer Society (BCS), and the UK Council for Health Informatics Professions (UKCHIP), with room for adding more in the future. Our major contribution is enhancing the findability of codes and standards related to health informatics ethics by compilation and unified access through the health informatics ethics repository. PMID:25422725

Biomedical informatics publications: a global perspective: part I: conferences.

PubMed

Maojo, V; García-Remesal, M; Bielza, C; Crespo, J; Perez-Rey, D; Kulikowski, C

2012-01-01

In the past decade, Medical Informatics (MI) and Bioinformatics (BI) have converged towards a new discipline, called Biomedical Informatics (BMI) bridging informatics methods across the spectrum from genomic research to personalized medicine and global healthcare. This convergence still raises challenging research questions which are being addressed by researchers internationally, which in turn raises the question of how biomedical informatics publications reflect the contributions from around the world in documenting the research. To analyse the worldwide participation of biomedical informatics researchers from professional groups and societies in the best-known scientific conferences in the field. The analysis is focused on their geographical affiliation, but also includes other features, such as the impact and recognition of the conferences. We manually collected data about authors of papers presented at three major MI conferences: Medinfo, MIE and the AMIA symposium. In addition, we collected data from a BI conference, ISMB, as a comparison. Finally, we analyzed the impact and recognition of these conferences within their scientific contexts. Data indicate a predominance of local authors at the regional conferences (AMIA and MIE), whereas other conferences with a world-wide scope (Medinfo and ISMB) had broader participation. Our analysis shows that the influence of these conferences beyond the discipline remains somewhat limited. Our results suggest that for BMI to be recognized as a broad discipline, both in the geographical and scientific sense, it will need to extend the scope of collaborations and their interdisciplinary impacts worldwide.

The Future of Public Health Informatics: Alternative Scenarios and Recommended Strategies

PubMed Central

Edmunds, Margo; Thorpe, Lorna; Sepulveda, Martin; Bezold, Clem; Ross, David A.

2014-01-01

Background: In October 2013, the Public Health Informatics Institute (PHII) and Institute for Alternative Futures (IAF) convened a multidisciplinary group of experts to evaluate forces shaping public health informatics (PHI) in the United States, with the aim of identifying upcoming challenges and opportunities. The PHI workshop was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of its larger strategic planning process for public health and primary care. Workshop Context: During the two-day workshop, nine experts from the public and private sectors analyzed and discussed the implications of four scenarios regarding the United States economy, health care system, information technology (IT) sector, and their potential impacts on public health in the next 10 years, by 2023. Workshop participants considered the potential role of the public health sector in addressing population health challenges in each scenario, and then identified specific informatics goals and strategies needed for the sector to succeed in this role. Recommendations and Conclusion: Participants developed recommendations for the public health informatics field and for public health overall in the coming decade. These included the need to rely more heavily on intersectoral collaborations across public and private sectors, to improve data infrastructure and workforce capacity at all levels of the public health enterprise, to expand the evidence base regarding effectiveness of informatics-based public health initiatives, and to communicate strategically with elected officials and other key stakeholders regarding the potential for informatics-based solutions to have an impact on population health. PMID:25848630

A current perspective on medical informatics and health sciences librarianship

PubMed Central

Perry, Gerald J.; Roderer, Nancy K.; Assar, Soraya

2005-01-01

Objective: The article offers a current perspective on medical informatics and health sciences librarianship. Narrative: The authors: (1) discuss how definitions of medical informatics have changed in relation to health sciences librarianship and the broader domain of information science; (2) compare the missions of health sciences librarianship and health sciences informatics, reviewing the characteristics of both disciplines; (3) propose a new definition of health sciences informatics; (4) consider the research agendas of both disciplines and the possibility that they have merged; and (5) conclude with some comments about actions and roles for health sciences librarians to flourish in the biomedical information environment of today and tomorrow. Summary: Boundaries are disappearing between the sources and types of and uses for health information managed by informaticians and librarians. Definitions of the professional domains of each have been impacted by these changes in information. Evolving definitions reflect the increasingly overlapping research agendas of both disciplines. Professionals in these disciplines are increasingly functioning collaboratively as “boundary spanners,” incorporating human factors that unite technology with health care delivery. PMID:15858622

A current perspective on medical informatics and health sciences librarianship.

PubMed

Perry, Gerald J; Roderer, Nancy K; Assar, Soraya

2005-04-01

The article offers a current perspective on medical informatics and health sciences librarianship. The authors: (1) discuss how definitions of medical informatics have changed in relation to health sciences librarianship and the broader domain of information science; (2) compare the missions of health sciences librarianship and health sciences informatics, reviewing the characteristics of both disciplines; (3) propose a new definition of health sciences informatics; (4) consider the research agendas of both disciplines and the possibility that they have merged; and (5) conclude with some comments about actions and roles for health sciences librarians to flourish in the biomedical information environment of today and tomorrow. Boundaries are disappearing between the sources and types of and uses for health information managed by informaticians and librarians. Definitions of the professional domains of each have been impacted by these changes in information. Evolving definitions reflect the increasingly overlapping research agendas of both disciplines. Professionals in these disciplines are increasingly functioning collaboratively as "boundary spanners," incorporating human factors that unite technology with health care delivery.

Women in biomedical engineering and health informatics.

PubMed

McGregor, Carolyn; Frize, Monique

2008-01-01

A valuable session for anyone whether student or not, interested in learning more about Biomedical Engineering and Health Informatics as a career choice for women. Prominent women within the domains Biomedical Engineering and Health Informatics will present their research and their humanitarian interests that motivate them. Utilise the fantastic networking opportunity that will conclude this session to build and establish new professional networks with other women interested in your fields of expertise. Bring your contact details and be ready to make new contacts that are relevant for you.

Technological Ecosystems in Health Informatics: A Brief Review Article.

PubMed

Wu, Zhongmei; Zhang, Xiuxiu; Chen, Ying; Zhang, Yan

2016-09-01

The existing models of information technology in health sciences have full scope of betterment and extension. The high demand pressures, public expectations, advanced platforms all collectively contribute towards hospital environment, which has to be kept in kind while designing of advanced technological ecosystem for information technology. Moreover, for the smooth conduct and operation of information system advanced management avenues are also essential in hospitals. It is the top priority of every hospital to deal with the essential needs of care for patients within the available resources of human and financial outputs. In these situations of high demand, the technological ecosystems in health informatics come in to play and prove its importance and role. The present review article would enlighten all these aspects of these ecosystems in hospital management and health care informatics. We searched the electronic database of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PubMed for clinical controlled trials, pre-clinical studies reporting utilizaiono of ecosysyem advances in health information technology. The primary outcome of eligible studies included confirmation of importance and role of advances ecosystems in health informatics. It was observed that technological ecosystems are the backbone of health informatics. Advancements in technological ecosystems are essential for proper functioning of health information system in clinical setting.

The Australian Health Informatics Competencies Framework and Its Role in the Certified Health Informatician Australasia (CHIA) Program.

PubMed

Martin-Sanchez, Fernando; Rowlands, David; Schaper, Louise; Hansen, David

2017-01-01

The Certified Health Informatician Australasia (CHIA) program consists of an online exam, which aims to test whether a candidate has the knowledge and skills that are identified in the competencies framework to perform as a health informatics professional. The CHIA Health Informatics Competencies Framework provides the context in which the questions for the exam have been developed. The core competencies for health informatics that are tested in the exam have been developed with reference to similar programs by the American Medical Informatics Association, the International Medical Informatics Association and COACH, Canada's Health Informatics Association, and builds on the previous work done by the Australian Health Informatics Education Council. This paper shows how the development of this competency framework is helping to raise the profile of health informaticians in Australasia, contributing to a wider recognition of the profession, and defining more clearly the body of knowledge underpinning this discipline. This framework can also be used as a set of guidelines for recruiting purposes, definitions of career pathways, or the design of educational and training activities. We discuss here the current status of the program, its resultsandprospectsfor the future.

Informatics, evidence-based care, and research; implications for national policy: a report of an American Medical Informatics Association health policy conference.

PubMed

Bloomrosen, Meryl; Detmer, Don E

2010-01-01

There is an increased level of activity in the biomedical and health informatics world (e-prescribing, electronic health records, personal health records) that, in the near future, will yield a wealth of available data that we can exploit meaningfully to strengthen knowledge building and evidence creation, and ultimately improve clinical and preventive care. The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) 2008 Health Policy Conference was convened to focus and propel discussions about informatics-enabled evidence-based care, clinical research, and knowledge management. Conference participants explored the potential of informatics tools and technologies to improve the evidence base on which providers and patients can draw to diagnose and treat health problems. The paper presents a model of an evidence continuum that is dynamic, collaborative, and powered by health informatics technologies. The conference's findings are described, and recommendations on terminology harmonization, facilitation of the evidence continuum in a "wired" world, development and dissemination of clinical practice guidelines and other knowledge support strategies, and the role of diverse stakeholders in the generation and adoption of evidence are presented.

The International Partnership for Health Informatics Education: lessons learned from six years of experience.

PubMed

Jaspers, M W M; Gardner, R M; Gatewood, L C; Haux, R; Schmidt, D; Wetter, T

2005-01-01

To inform the medical and health informatics community on the rational, goals, and the achievements of the International Partnership for Health Informatics Education--IPHIE, (I phi E), that was established at six universities in 1999. We elaborate on the overall goals of I phi E and describe the current state of affairs: the activities undertaken and faculty and student experience related to these activities. In addition we outline the lessons we have learned over these past six years and our plans for the future. I phi E members first started to collaborate by supporting and encouraging the exchange of talented students and faculty and by establishing joint master classes for honors students. Following the success of these activities, new initiatives were undertaken such as the organization of student workshops at medical informatics conferences and a joint course on strategic information management in hospitals in Europe. International partnerships such as I phi E take time to establish, and, if they are to be successful, maintaining leadership continuity is critically important. We are convinced that I phi E promotes professionalism of future medical informatics specialists. There will be a continuing growth of globalization in higher education. It will therefore become increasingly important to offer educational programs with international components.

An innovative capstone health care informatics clinical residency: Interprofessional team collaboration.

PubMed

Custis, Laura M; Hawkins, Shelley Y; Thomason, Tanna R

2017-03-01

Integrated information systems and wireless technology have been increasingly incorporated into health care organizations with the premise that information technology will promote safe, high-quality, cost-effective patient care. With the advancement of technology, the level of expertise necessary to assume health care information technology roles has escalated. The purpose of this article is to describe a clinical residency project whereby students in a graduate degree health care informatics program successfully fulfilled program competencies through a faculty-lead research project focused on the use of home telehealth with a group of heart failure patients. Through the use of Donabedian's framework of structure, process, and outcomes, the health care informatics students completed essential learning activities deemed essential for transition into the role of an informatics specialist. Health care informatics educational leaders are encouraged to adapt this template of applied learning into their practices.

Consumer Health Informatics--integrating patients, providers, and professionals online.

PubMed

Klein-Fedyshin, Michele S

2002-01-01

Consumer Health Informatics (CHI) means different things to patients, health professionals, and health care systems. A broader perspective on this new and rapidly developing field will enable us to understand and better apply its advances. This article provides an overview of CHI discussing its evolution and driving forces, along with advanced applications such as Personal Health Records, Internet transmission of personal health data, clinical e-mail, online pharmacies, and shared decision-making tools. Consumer Health Informatics will become integrated with medical care, electronic medical records, and patient education to impact the whole process and business of health care.

The Effectiveness of Hands-on Health Informatics Skills Exercises in the Multidisciplinary Smart Home Healthcare and Health Informatics Training Laboratories.

PubMed

Sapci, A H; Sapci, H A

2017-10-01

This article aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of newly established innovative smart home healthcare and health informatics laboratories, and a novel laboratory course that focuses on experiential health informatics training, and determine students' self-confidence to operate wireless home health monitoring devices before and after the hands-on laboratory course. Two web-based pretraining and posttraining questionnaires were sent to 64 students who received hands-on training with wireless remote patient monitoring devices in smart home healthcare and health informatics laboratories. All 64 students completed the pretraining survey (100% response rate), and 49 students completed the posttraining survey (76% response rate). The quantitative data analysis showed that 95% of students had an interest in taking more hands-on laboratory courses. Sixty-seven percent of students had no prior experience with medical image, physiological data acquisition, storage, and transmission protocols. After the hands-on training session, 75.51% of students expressed improved confidence about training patients to measure blood pressure monitor using wireless devices. Ninety percent of students preferred to use a similar experiential approach in their future learning experience. Additionally, the qualitative data analysis demonstrated that students were expecting to have more courses with hands-on exercises and integration of technology-enabled delivery and patient monitoring concepts into the curriculum. This study demonstrated that the multidisciplinary smart home healthcare and health informatics training laboratories and the hands-on exercises improved students' technology adoption rates and their self-confidence in using wireless patient monitoring devices. Schattauer GmbH Stuttgart.

Interdisciplinary innovations in biomedical and health informatics graduate education.

PubMed

Demiris, G

2007-01-01

Biomedical and health informatics (BHI) is a rapidly growing domain that relies on the active collaboration with diverse disciplines and professions. Educational initiatives in BHI need to prepare students with skills and competencies that will allow them to function within and even facilitate interdisciplinary teams (IDT). This paper describes an interdisciplinary educational approach introduced into a BHI graduate curriculum that aims to prepare informatics researchers to lead IDT research. A case study of the "gerontechnology" research track is presented which highlights how the curriculum fosters collaboration with and understanding of the disciplines of Nursing, Engineering, Computer Science, and Health Administration. Gerontechnology is a new interdisciplinary field that focuses on the use of technology to support aging. Its aim is to explore innovative ways to use information technology and develop systems that support independency and increase quality of life for senior citizens. As a result of a large research group that explores "smart home" technologies and the use of information technology, we integrated this new domain into the curriculum providing a platform for computer scientists, engineers, nurses and physicians to explore challenges and opportunities with our informatics students and faculty. The interdisciplinary educational model provides an opportunity for health informatics students to acquire the skills for communication and collaboration with other disciplines. Numerous graduate and postgraduate students have already participated in this initiative. The evaluation model of this approach is presented. Interdisciplinary educational models are required for health informatics graduate education. Such models need to be innovative and reflect the needs and trends in the domains of health care and information technology.

Creativity as a Key Driver for Designing Context Sensitive Health Informatics.

PubMed

Zhou, Chunfang; Nøhr, Christian

2017-01-01

In order to face the increasing challenges of complexity and uncertainty in practice of health care, this paper aims to discuss how creativity can contribute to design new technologies in health informatics systems. It will firstly introduce the background highlighting creativity as a missing element in recent studies on context sensitive health informatics. Secondly, the concept of creativity and its relationship with activities of technology design will be discussed from a socio-culture perspective. This will be thirdly followed by understanding the roles of creativity in designing new health informatics technologies for meeting needs of high context sensitivity. Finally, a series of potential strategies will be suggested to improve creativity among technology designers working in healthcare industries. Briefly, this paper innovatively bridges two areas studies on creativity and context sensitive health informatics by issues of technology design that also indicates its important significances for future research.

Biomedical and Health Informatics Education – the IMIA Years

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Summary Objective This paper presents the development of medical informatics education during the years from the establishment of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) until today. Method A search in the literature was performed using search engines and appropriate keywords as well as a manual selection of papers. The search covered English language papers and was limited to search on papers title and abstract only. Results The aggregated papers were analyzed on the basis of the subject area, origin, time span, and curriculum development, and conclusions were drawn. Conclusions From the results, it is evident that IMIA has played a major role in comparing and integrating the Biomedical and Health Informatics educational efforts across the different levels of education and the regional distribution of educators and institutions. A large selection of references is presented facilitating future work on the field of education in biomedical and health informatics. PMID:27488405

On Informatics Diagnostics and Informatics Therapeutics - Good Medical Informatics Research Is Needed Here.

PubMed

Haux, Reinhold

2017-01-01

In the era of digitization some new procedures play an increasing role for diagnosis as well as for therapy: informatics diagnostics and informatics therapeutics. Challenges for such procedures are described. It is discussed, when research on such diagnostics and therapeutics can be regarded as good research. Examples are mentioned for informatics diagnostics and informatics therapeutics, which are based on health-enabling technologies.

Research Strategies for Biomedical and Health Informatics

PubMed Central

Kulikowski, Casimir A.; Bakken, Suzanne; de Lusignan, Simon; Kimura, Michio; Koch, Sabine; Mantas, John; Maojo, Victor; Marschollek, Michael; Martin-Sanchez, Fernando; Moen, Anne; Park, Hyeoun-Ae; Sarkar, Indra Neil; Leong, Tze Yun; McCray, Alexa T.

2017-01-01

Summary Background Medical informatics, or biomedical and health informatics (BMHI), has become an established scientific discipline. In all such disciplines there is a certain inertia to persist in focusing on well-established research areas and to hold on to well-known research methodologies rather than adopting new ones, which may be more appropriate. Objectives To search for answers to the following questions: What are research fields in informatics, which are not being currently adequately addressed, and which methodological approaches might be insufficiently used? Do we know about reasons? What could be consequences of change for research and for education? Methods Outstanding informatics scientists were invited to three panel sessions on this topic in leading international conferences (MIE 2015, Medinfo 2015, HEC 2016) in order to get their answers to these questions. Results A variety of themes emerged in the set of answers provided by the panellists. Some panellists took the theoretical foundations of the field for granted, while several questioned whether the field was actually grounded in a strong theoretical foundation. Panellists proposed a range of suggestions for new or improved approaches, methodologies, and techniques to enhance the BMHI research agenda. Conclusions The field of BMHI is on the one hand maturing as an academic community and intellectual endeavour. On the other hand vendor-supplied solutions may be too readily and uncritically accepted in health care practice. There is a high chance that BMHI will continue to flourish as an important discipline; its innovative interventions might then reach the original objectives of advancing science and improving health care outcomes. PMID:28119991

Building an educated health informatics workforce--the New Zealand experience.

PubMed

Parry, David; Hunter, Inga; Honey, Michelle; Holt, Alec; Day, Karen; Kirk, Ray; Cullen, Rowena

2013-01-01

New Zealand has a rapidly expanding health information technology (IT) development industry and wide-ranging use of informatics, especially in the primary health sector. The New Zealand government through the National Health IT Board (NHITB) has promised to provide shared care health records of core information for all New Zealanders by 2014. One of the major barriers to improvement in IT use in healthcare is the dearth of trained and interested clinicians, management and technical workforce. Health Informatics New Zealand (HINZ) and the academic community in New Zealand are attempting to remedy this by raising awareness of health informatics at the "grass roots" level of the existing workforce via free "primer" workshops and by developing a sustainable cross-institutional model of educational opportunities. Support from the NHITB has been forthcoming, and the workshops started in early 2013, reaching out to clinical and other staff in post around New Zealand.

Evidence-based Patient Choice and Consumer health informatics in the Internet age

PubMed Central

2001-01-01

In this paper we explore current access to and barriers to health information for consumers. We discuss how computers and other developments in information technology are ushering in the era of consumer health informatics , and the potential that lies ahead. It is clear that we witness a period in which the public will have unprecedented ability to access information and to participate actively in evidence-based health care. We propose that consumer health informatics be regarded as a whole new academic discipline, one that should be devoted to the exploration of the new possibilities that informatics is creating for consumers in relation to health and health care issues. PMID:11720961

Electronic Personal Health Record Use Among Nurses in the Nursing Informatics Community.

PubMed

Gartrell, Kyungsook; Trinkoff, Alison M; Storr, Carla L; Wilson, Marisa L

2015-07-01

An electronic personal health record is a patient-centric tool that enables patients to securely access, manage, and share their health information with healthcare providers. It is presumed the nursing informatics community would be early adopters of electronic personal health record, yet no studies have been identified that examine the personal adoption of electronic personal health record's for their own healthcare. For this study, we sampled nurse members of the American Medical Informatics Association and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society with 183 responding. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify those factors associated with electronic personal health record use. Overall, 72% were electronic personal health record users. Users tended to be older (aged >50 years), be more highly educated (72% master's or doctoral degrees), and hold positions as clinical informatics specialists or chief nursing informatics officers. Those whose healthcare providers used electronic health records were significantly more likely to use electronic personal health records (odds ratio, 5.99; 95% confidence interval, 1.40-25.61). Electronic personal health record users were significantly less concerned about privacy of health information online than nonusers (odds ratio, 0.32; 95% confidence interval, 0.14-0.70) adjusted for ethnicity, race, and practice region. Informatics nurses, with their patient-centered view of technology, are in prime position to influence development of electronic personal health records. Our findings can inform policy efforts to encourage informatics and other professional nursing groups to become leaders and users of electronic personal health record; such use could help them endorse and engage patients to use electronic personal health records. Having champions with expertise in and enthusiasm for the new technology can promote the adoptionof electronic personal health records among healthcare providers as well as

The State of Information and Communication Technology and Health Informatics in Ghana

PubMed Central

Achampong, Emmanuel Kusi

2012-01-01

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become a major tool in delivery of health services and has had an innovative impact on quality of life. ICT is affecting the way healthcare is delivered to clients. In this paper, we discuss the state of ICT and health informatics in Ghana. We also discuss the state of various relevant infrastructures for the successful implementation of ehealth projects. We analyse the past and present state of health informatics in Ghana, in comparison to other African countries. We also review the challenges facing successful implementation of health informatics projects in Ghana and suggest possible solutions. PMID:23569633

Understanding the use of geographical information systems (GIS) in health informatics research: A review.

PubMed

Shaw, Nicola; McGuire, Suzanne

2017-06-23

The purpose of this literature review is to understand geographical information systems (GIS) and how they can be applied to public health informatics, medical informatics, and epidemiology. Relevant papers that reflected the use of geographical information systems (GIS) in health research were identified from four academic databases: Academic Search Complete, BioMed Central, PubMed Central, and Scholars Portal, as well as Google Scholar. The search strategy used was to identify articles with "geographic information systems", "GIS", "public health", "medical informatics", "epidemiology", and "health geography" as main subject headings or text words in titles and abstracts. Papers published between 1997 and 2014 were considered and a total of 39 articles were included to inform the authors on the use of GIS technologies in health informatics research. The main applications of GIS in health informatics and epidemiology include disease surveillance, health risk analysis, health access and planning, and community health profiling. GIS technologies can significantly improve quality and efficiency in health research as substantial connections can be made between a population's health and their geographical location. Gains in health informatics can be made when GIS are applied through research, however, improvements need to occur in the quantity and quality of data input for these systems to ensure better geographical health maps are used so that proper conclusions between public health and environmental factors may be made.

The Health Information Technology Competencies Tool: Does It Translate for Nursing Informatics in the United States?

PubMed

Sipes, Carolyn; Hunter, Kathleen; McGonigle, Dee; West, Karen; Hill, Taryn; Hebda, Toni

2017-12-01

Information technology use in healthcare delivery mandates a prepared workforce. The initial Health Information Technology Competencies tool resulted from a 2-year transatlantic effort by experts from the US and European Union to identify approaches to develop skills and knowledge needed by healthcare workers. It was determined that competencies must be identified before strategies are established, resulting in a searchable database of more than 1000 competencies representing five domains, five skill levels, and more than 250 roles. Health Information Technology Competencies is available at no cost and supports role- or competency-based queries. Health Information Technology Competencies developers suggest its use for curriculum planning, job descriptions, and professional development.The Chamberlain College of Nursing informatics research team examined Health Information Technology Competencies for its possible application to our research and our curricular development, comparing it originally with the TIGER-based Assessment of Nursing Informatics Competencies and Nursing Informatics Competency Assessment of Level 3 and Level 4 tools, which examine informatics competencies at four levels of nursing practice. Additional analysis involved the 2015 Nursing Informatics: Scope and Standards of Practice. Informatics is a Health Information Technology Competencies domain, so clear delineation of nursing-informatics competencies was expected. Researchers found TIGER-based Assessment of Nursing Informatics Competencies and Nursing Informatics Competency Assessment of Level 3 and Level 4 differed from Health Information Technology Competencies 2016 in focus, definitions, ascribed competencies, and defined levels of expertise. When Health Information Technology Competencies 2017 was compared against the nursing informatics scope and standards, researchers found an increase in the number of informatics competencies but not to a significant degree. This is not surprising

Biomedical informatics advancing the national health agenda: the AMIA 2015 year-in-review in clinical and consumer informatics.

PubMed

Roberts, Kirk; Boland, Mary Regina; Pruinelli, Lisiane; Dcruz, Jina; Berry, Andrew; Georgsson, Mattias; Hazen, Rebecca; Sarmiento, Raymond F; Backonja, Uba; Yu, Kun-Hsing; Jiang, Yun; Brennan, Patricia Flatley

2017-04-01

The field of biomedical informatics experienced a productive 2015 in terms of research. In order to highlight the accomplishments of that research, elicit trends, and identify shortcomings at a macro level, a 19-person team conducted an extensive review of the literature in clinical and consumer informatics. The result of this process included a year-in-review presentation at the American Medical Informatics Association Annual Symposium and a written report (see supplemental data). Key findings are detailed in the report and summarized here. This article organizes the clinical and consumer health informatics research from 2015 under 3 themes: the electronic health record (EHR), the learning health system (LHS), and consumer engagement. Key findings include the following: (1) There are significant advances in establishing policies for EHR feature implementation, but increased interoperability is necessary for these to gain traction. (2) Decision support systems improve practice behaviors, but evidence of their impact on clinical outcomes is still lacking. (3) Progress in natural language processing (NLP) suggests that we are approaching but have not yet achieved truly interactive NLP systems. (4) Prediction models are becoming more robust but remain hampered by the lack of interoperable clinical data records. (5) Consumers can and will use mobile applications for improved engagement, yet EHR integration remains elusive. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Characteristics of Local Health Departments Associated with Implementation of Electronic Health Records and Other Informatics Systems.

PubMed

Shah, Gulzar H; Leider, Jonathon P; Castrucci, Brian C; Williams, Karmen S; Luo, Huabin

2016-01-01

Assessing local health departments' (LHDs') informatics capacities is important, especially within the context of broader, systems-level health reform. We assessed a nationally representative sample of LHDs' adoption of information systems and the factors associated with adoption and implementation by examining electronic health records, health information exchange, immunization registry, electronic disease reporting system, and electronic laboratory reporting. We used data from the National Association of County and City Health Officials' 2013 National Profile of LHDs. We performed descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression for the five implementation-oriented outcome variables of interest, with three levels of implementation (implemented, plan to implement, and no activity). Independent variables included infrastructural and financial capacity and other characteristics associated with informatics capacity. Of 505 LHDs that responded to the survey, 69 (13.5%) had implemented health information exchanges, 122 (22.2%) had implemented electronic health records, 245 (47.5%) had implemented electronic laboratory reporting, 368 (73.0%) had implemented an electronic disease reporting system, and 416 (83.8%) had implemented an immunization registry. LHD characteristics associated with health informatics adoption included provision of greater number of clinical services, greater per capita public health expenditures, health information systems specialists on staff, larger population size, decentralized governance system, one or more local boards of health, metropolitan jurisdiction, and top executive with more years in the job. Many LHDs lack health informatics capacity, particularly in smaller, rural jurisdictions. Cross-jurisdictional sharing, investment in public health informatics infrastructure, and additional training may help address these shortfalls.

Using the Internet to Teach Health Informatics: A Case Study

PubMed Central

Holt, Alec; Gillies, John

2001-01-01

Background It is becoming increasingly important for health professionals to have an understanding of health informatics. Education in this area must support not only undergraduate students but also the many workers who graduated before informatics education was available in the undergraduate program. To be successful, such a program must allow currently-employed students with significant work and family commitments to enroll. Objectives The aim was to successfully create and teach a distance program in health informatics for the New Zealand environment. Methods Our students are primarily health professionals in full time employment. About 50% are doctors, about 25% nurses, and the rest include dentists, physiotherapists, and medical managers. Course material was delivered via the World Wide Web and CD-ROM. Communication between students and faculty, both synchronous and asynchronous, was carried out via the Internet. Results We have designed and taught a postgraduate Diploma of Health Informatics program using the Internet as a major communication medium. The course has been running since July 1998 and the first 10 students graduated in July 2000. About 45 students are currently enrolled in the course; we have had a dropout rate of 15% and a failure rate of 5%. Comparable dropout figures are hard to obtain, but a recent review has suggested that failure-to-complete rates of 30% to 33% may be expected. Conclusions Internet technology has provided an exciting educational challenge and opportunity. Providing a web-based health informatics course has not been without its frustrations and problems, including software compatibility issues, bandwidth limitations, and the rapid change in software and hardware. Despite these challenges, the use of Internet technology has been interesting for both staff and students, and a worthwhile alternative for delivering educational material and advice to students working from their own homes. PMID:11720968

An informatics agenda for public health: summarized recommendations from the 2011 AMIA PHI Conference

PubMed Central

Goodman, Kenneth W; Gotham, Ivan J; Holmes, John H; Lang, Lisa; Miner, Kathleen; Potenziani, David D; Richards, Janise; Turner, Anne M; Fu, Paul C

2012-01-01

The AMIA Public Health Informatics 2011 Conference brought together members of the public health and health informatics communities to revisit the national agenda developed at the AMIA Spring Congress in 2001, assess the progress that has been made in the past decade, and develop recommendations to further guide the field. Participants met in five discussion tracks: technical framework; research and evaluation; ethics; education, professional training, and workforce development; and sustainability. Participants identified 62 recommendations, which clustered into three key themes related to the need to (1) enhance communication and information sharing within the public health informatics community, (2) improve the consistency of public health informatics through common public health terminologies, rigorous evaluation methodologies, and competency-based training, and (3) promote effective coordination and leadership that will champion and drive the field forward. The agenda and recommendations from the meeting will be disseminated and discussed throughout the public health and informatics communities. Both communities stand to gain much by working together to use these recommendations to further advance the application of information technology to improve health. PMID:22395299

Health informatics 3.0.

PubMed

Kalra, Dipak

2011-01-01

Web 3.0 promises us smart computer services that will interact with each other and leverage knowledge about us and our immediate context to deliver prioritised and relevant information to support decisions and actions. Healthcare must take advantage of such new knowledge-integrating services, in particular to support better co-operation between professionals of different disciplines working in different locations, and to enable well-informed co-operation between clinicians and patients. To grasp the potential of Web 3.0 we will need well-harmonised semantic resources that can richly connect virtual teams and link their strategies to real-time and tailored evidence. Facts, decision logic, care pathway steps, alerts, education need to be embedded within components that can interact with multiple EHR systems and services consistently. Using Health Informatics 3.0 a patient's current situation could be compared with the outcomes of very similar patients (from across millions) to deliver personalised care recommendations. The integration of EHRs with biomedical sciences ('omics) research results and predictive models such as the Virtual Physiological Human could help speed up the translation of new knowledge into clinical practice. The mission, and challenge, for Health Informatics 3.0 is to enable healthy citizens, patients and professionals to collaborate within a knowledge-empowered social network in which patient specific information and personalised real-time evidence are seamlessly interwoven.

The evolution of medical informatics in China: A retrospective study and lessons learned.

PubMed

Lei, Jianbo; Meng, Qun; Li, Yuefeng; Liang, Minghui; Zheng, Kai

2016-08-01

In contrast to China's giant health information technology (HIT) market and tremendous investments in hospital information systems the contributions of Chinese scholars in medical informatics to the global community are very limited. China would like to have a more important position in the global medical informatics community. A better understanding of the differences between medical informatics research and education in China and the discipline that emerged abroad will better inform Chinese scholars to develop right strategies to advance the field in China and help identify an appropriate means to collaborate more closely with medical informatics scholars globally. For the first time, this paper divides the evolution of medical informatics in China into four stages based on changes in the core content of research, the educational orientation and other developmental characteristics. The four stages are infancy, incubation, primary establishment and formal establishment. This paper summarizes and reviews major supporting journals and publications, as well as major organizations. Finally, we analyze the main problems that exist in the current disciplinary development in China related to medical informatics research and education and offer suggestions for future improvement. The evolution of medical informatics shows a strong and traditional concentration on medical library/bibliographic information rather than medical (hospital information or patient information) information. Misdirected-concentration, a lack of formal medical informatics trained teaching staff and mistakenly positioning medical informatics as an undergraduate discipline are some of the problems inhibiting the development of medical informatics in China. These lessons should be shared and learned for the global community. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Big Data: Are Biomedical and Health Informatics Training Programs Ready? Contribution of the IMIA Working Group for Health and Medical Informatics Education.

PubMed

Otero, P; Hersh, W; Jai Ganesh, A U

2014-08-15

The growing volume and diversity of health and biomedical data indicate that the era of Big Data has arrived for healthcare. This has many implications for informatics, not only in terms of implementing and evaluating information systems, but also for the work and training of informatics researchers and professionals. This article addresses the question: What do biomedical and health informaticians working in analytics and Big Data need to know? We hypothesize a set of skills that we hope will be discussed among academic and other informaticians. The set of skills includes: Programming - especially with data-oriented tools, such as SQL and statistical programming languages; Statistics - working knowledge to apply tools and techniques; Domain knowledge - depending on one's area of work, bioscience or health care; and Communication - being able to understand needs of people and organizations, and articulate results back to them. Biomedical and health informatics educational programs must introduce concepts of analytics, Big Data, and the underlying skills to use and apply them into their curricula. The development of new coursework should focus on those who will become experts, with training aiming to provide skills in "deep analytical talent" as well as those who need knowledge to support such individuals.

Conceptual Models in Health Informatics Research: A Literature Review and Suggestions for Development

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Background Contributing to health informatics research means using conceptual models that are integrative and explain the research in terms of the two broad domains of health science and information science. However, it can be hard for novice health informatics researchers to find exemplars and guidelines in working with integrative conceptual models. Objectives The aim of this paper is to support the use of integrative conceptual models in research on information and communication technologies in the health sector, and to encourage discussion of these conceptual models in scholarly forums. Methods A two-part method was used to summarize and structure ideas about how to work effectively with conceptual models in health informatics research that included (1) a selective review and summary of the literature of conceptual models; and (2) the construction of a step-by-step approach to developing a conceptual model. Results The seven-step methodology for developing conceptual models in health informatics research explained in this paper involves (1) acknowledging the limitations of health science and information science conceptual models; (2) giving a rationale for one’s choice of integrative conceptual model; (3) explicating a conceptual model verbally and graphically; (4) seeking feedback about the conceptual model from stakeholders in both the health science and information science domains; (5) aligning a conceptual model with an appropriate research plan; (6) adapting a conceptual model in response to new knowledge over time; and (7) disseminating conceptual models in scholarly and scientific forums. Conclusions Making explicit the conceptual model that underpins a health informatics research project can contribute to increasing the number of well-formed and strongly grounded health informatics research projects. This explication has distinct benefits for researchers in training, research teams, and researchers and practitioners in information, health, and other

Conceptual Models in Health Informatics Research: A Literature Review and Suggestions for Development.

PubMed

Gray, Kathleen; Sockolow, Paulina

2016-02-24

Contributing to health informatics research means using conceptual models that are integrative and explain the research in terms of the two broad domains of health science and information science. However, it can be hard for novice health informatics researchers to find exemplars and guidelines in working with integrative conceptual models. The aim of this paper is to support the use of integrative conceptual models in research on information and communication technologies in the health sector, and to encourage discussion of these conceptual models in scholarly forums. A two-part method was used to summarize and structure ideas about how to work effectively with conceptual models in health informatics research that included (1) a selective review and summary of the literature of conceptual models; and (2) the construction of a step-by-step approach to developing a conceptual model. The seven-step methodology for developing conceptual models in health informatics research explained in this paper involves (1) acknowledging the limitations of health science and information science conceptual models; (2) giving a rationale for one's choice of integrative conceptual model; (3) explicating a conceptual model verbally and graphically; (4) seeking feedback about the conceptual model from stakeholders in both the health science and information science domains; (5) aligning a conceptual model with an appropriate research plan; (6) adapting a conceptual model in response to new knowledge over time; and (7) disseminating conceptual models in scholarly and scientific forums. Making explicit the conceptual model that underpins a health informatics research project can contribute to increasing the number of well-formed and strongly grounded health informatics research projects. This explication has distinct benefits for researchers in training, research teams, and researchers and practitioners in information, health, and other disciplines.

Informatics Metrics and Measures for a Smart Public Health Systems Approach: Information Science Perspective

PubMed Central

Shea, Christopher Michael

2017-01-01

Public health informatics is an evolving domain in which practices constantly change to meet the demands of a highly complex public health and healthcare delivery system. Given the emergence of various concepts, such as learning health systems, smart health systems, and adaptive complex health systems, health informatics professionals would benefit from a common set of measures and capabilities to inform our modeling, measuring, and managing of health system “smartness.” Here, we introduce the concepts of organizational complexity, problem/issue complexity, and situational awareness as three codependent drivers of smart public health systems characteristics. We also propose seven smart public health systems measures and capabilities that are important in a public health informatics professional's toolkit. PMID:28167999

Informatics Metrics and Measures for a Smart Public Health Systems Approach: Information Science Perspective.

PubMed

Carney, Timothy Jay; Shea, Christopher Michael

2017-01-01

Public health informatics is an evolving domain in which practices constantly change to meet the demands of a highly complex public health and healthcare delivery system. Given the emergence of various concepts, such as learning health systems, smart health systems, and adaptive complex health systems, health informatics professionals would benefit from a common set of measures and capabilities to inform our modeling, measuring, and managing of health system "smartness." Here, we introduce the concepts of organizational complexity, problem/issue complexity, and situational awareness as three codependent drivers of smart public health systems characteristics. We also propose seven smart public health systems measures and capabilities that are important in a public health informatics professional's toolkit.

Audacious goals for health and biomedical informatics in the new millennium.

PubMed

Greenes, R A; Lorenzi, N M

1998-01-01

The 1998 Scientific Symposium of the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) was devoted to developing visions for the future of health care and biomedicine and a strategic agenda for health and biomedical informatics in support of those visions. This symposium focus was prompted by the many major changes currently underway in health care delivery, education, and research, as well as in our health and biomedical enterprises, and by the constantly increasing role of information technology in both shaping and enabling these changes. The three audacious goals developed for 2008 are a virtual health care databank, a national health care knowledge base, and a personal clinical health record.

The state and profile of open source software projects in health and medical informatics.

PubMed

Janamanchi, Balaji; Katsamakas, Evangelos; Raghupathi, Wullianallur; Gao, Wei

2009-07-01

Little has been published about the application profiles and development patterns of open source software (OSS) in health and medical informatics. This study explores these issues with an analysis of health and medical informatics related OSS projects on SourceForge, a large repository of open source projects. A search was conducted on the SourceForge website during the period from May 1 to 15, 2007, to identify health and medical informatics OSS projects. This search resulted in a sample of 174 projects. A Java-based parser was written to extract data for several of the key variables of each project. Several visually descriptive statistics were generated to analyze the profiles of the OSS projects. Many of the projects have sponsors, implying a growing interest in OSS among organizations. Sponsorship, we discovered, has a significant impact on project success metrics. Nearly two-thirds of the projects have a restrictive license type. Restrictive licensing may indicate tighter control over the development process. Our sample includes a wide range of projects that are at various stages of development (status). Projects targeted towards the advanced end user are primarily focused on bio-informatics, data formats, database and medical science applications. We conclude that there exists an active and thriving OSS development community that is focusing on health and medical informatics. A wide range of OSS applications are in development, from bio-informatics to hospital information systems. A profile of OSS in health and medical informatics emerges that is distinct and unique to the health care field. Future research can focus on OSS acceptance and diffusion and impact on cost, efficiency and quality of health care.

Beyond information access: Support for complex cognitive activities in public health informatics tools.

PubMed

Sedig, Kamran; Parsons, Paul; Dittmer, Mark; Ola, Oluwakemi

2012-01-01

Public health professionals work with a variety of information sources to carry out their everyday activities. In recent years, interactive computational tools have become deeply embedded in such activities. Unlike the early days of computational tool use, the potential of tools nowadays is not limited to simply providing access to information; rather, they can act as powerful mediators of human-information discourse, enabling rich interaction with public health information. If public health informatics tools are designed and used properly, they can facilitate, enhance, and support the performance of complex cognitive activities that are essential to public health informatics, such as problem solving, forecasting, sense-making, and planning. However, the effective design and evaluation of public health informatics tools requires an understanding of the cognitive and perceptual issues pertaining to how humans work and think with information to perform such activities. This paper draws on research that has examined some of the relevant issues, including interaction design, complex cognition, and visual representations, to offer some human-centered design and evaluation considerations for public health informatics tools.

The Informatics Opportunities at the Intersection of Patient Safety and Clinical Informatics

PubMed Central

Kilbridge, Peter M.; Classen, David C.

2008-01-01

Health care providers have a basic responsibility to protect patients from accidental harm. At the institutional level, creating safe health care organizations necessitates a systematic approach. Effective use of informatics to enhance safety requires the establishment and use of standards for concept definitions and for data exchange, development of acceptable models for knowledge representation, incentives for adoption of electronic health records, support for adverse event detection and reporting, and greater investment in research at the intersection of informatics and patient safety. Leading organizations have demonstrated that health care informatics approaches can improve safety. Nevertheless, significant obstacles today limit optimal application of health informatics to safety within most provider environments. The authors offer a series of recommendations for addressing these challenges. PMID:18436896

Medical informatics in morocco.

PubMed

Bouhaddou, O; Bennani Othmani, M; Diouny, S

2013-01-01

Informatics is an essential tool for helping to transform healthcare from a paper-based to a digital sector. This article explores the state-of-the-art of health informatics in Morocco. Specifically, it aims to give a general overview of the Moroccan healthcare system, the challenges it is facing, and the efforts undertaken by the informatics community and Moroccan government in terms of education, research and practice to reform the country's health sector. Through the experience of establishing Medical Informatics as a medical specialty in 2008, creating a Moroccan Medical Informatics Association in 2010 and holding a first national congress took place in April 2012, the authors present their assessment of some important priorities for health informatics in Morocco. These Moroccan initiatives are facilitating collaboration in education, research, and implementation of clinical information systems. In particular, the stakeholders have recognized the need for a national coordinator office and the development of a national framework for standards and interoperability. For developing countries like Morocco, new health IT approaches like mobile health and trans-media health advertising could help optimize scarce resources, improve access to rural areas and focus on the most prevalent health problems, optimizing health care access, quality, and cost for Morocco population.

STARE-HI – Statement on Reporting of Evaluation Studies in Health Informatics

PubMed Central

Brender, J.; Talmon, J.; de Keizer, N.; Nykänen, P.; Rigby, M.; Ammenwerth, E.

2013-01-01

Summary Background Improving the quality of reporting of evaluation studies in health informatics is an important requirement towards the vision of evidence-based health informatics. The STARE-HI – Statement on Reporting of Evaluation Studies in health informatics, published in 2009, provides guidelines on the elements to be contained in an evaluation study report. Objectives To elaborate on and provide a rationale for the principles of STARE-HI and to guide authors and readers of evaluation studies in health informatics by providing explanatory examples of reporting. Methods A group of methodologists, researchers and editors prepared the present elaboration of the STARE-HI statement and selected examples from the literature. Results The 35 STARE-HI items to be addressed in evaluation papers describing health informatics interventions are discussed one by one and each is extended with examples and elaborations. Conclusion The STARE-HI statement and this elaboration document should be helpful resources to improve reporting of both quantitative and qualitative evaluation studies. Evaluation manuscripts adhering to the principles will enable readers of such papers to better place the studies in a proper context and judge their validity and generalizability, and thus in turn optimize the exploitation of the evidence contained therein. Limitations This paper is based on experiences of a group of editors, reviewers, authors of systematic reviews and readers of the scientific literature. The applicability of the details of these principles has to evolve as a function of their use in practice. PMID:24155788

Biomedical informatics and translational medicine.

PubMed

Sarkar, Indra Neil

2010-02-26

Biomedical informatics involves a core set of methodologies that can provide a foundation for crossing the "translational barriers" associated with translational medicine. To this end, the fundamental aspects of biomedical informatics (e.g., bioinformatics, imaging informatics, clinical informatics, and public health informatics) may be essential in helping improve the ability to bring basic research findings to the bedside, evaluate the efficacy of interventions across communities, and enable the assessment of the eventual impact of translational medicine innovations on health policies. Here, a brief description is provided for a selection of key biomedical informatics topics (Decision Support, Natural Language Processing, Standards, Information Retrieval, and Electronic Health Records) and their relevance to translational medicine. Based on contributions and advancements in each of these topic areas, the article proposes that biomedical informatics practitioners ("biomedical informaticians") can be essential members of translational medicine teams.

Alumni's perception of public health informatics competencies: lessons from the Graduate Program of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia.

PubMed

Fuad, Anis; Sanjaya, Guardian Yoki; Lazuardi, Lutfan; Rahmanti, Annisa Ristya; Hsu, Chien-Yeh

2013-01-01

Public health informatics has been defined as the systematic application of information and computer science and technology to public health practice, research, and learning [1]. Unfortunately, limited reports exist concerning to the capacity building strategies to improve public health informatics workforce in limited-resources setting. In Indonesia, only three universities, including Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), offer master degree program on related public health informatics discipline. UGM started a new dedicated master program on Health Management Information Systems in 2005, under the auspice of the Graduate Program of Public Health at the Faculty of Medicine. This is the first tracer study to the alumni aiming to a) identify the gaps between curriculum and the current jobs and b) describe their perception on public health informatics competencies. We distributed questionnaires to 114 alumni with 36.84 % response rate. Despite low response rate, this study provided valuable resources to set up appropriate competencies, curriculum and capacity building strategies of public health informatics workforce in Indonesia.

Crossing Borders: An Online Interdisciplinary Course in Health Informatics for Students From Two Countries.

PubMed

Fossum, Mariann; Fruhling, Ann; Moe, Carl Erik; Thompson, Cheryl Bagley

2017-04-01

A cross-countries and interprofessional novel approach for delivering an international interdisciplinary graduate health informatics course online is presented. Included in this discussion are the challenges, lessons learned, and pedagogical recommendations from the experiences of teaching the course. Four professors from three different fields and from three universities collaborated in offering an international health informatics course for an interdisciplinary group of 18 US and seven Norwegian students. Highly motivated students and professors, an online technology infrastructure that supported asynchronously communication and course delivery, the ability to adapt the curriculum to meet the pedagogy requirements at all universities, and the support of higher administration for international collaboration were enablers for success. This project demonstrated the feasibility and advantages of an interdisciplinary, interprofessional, and cross-countries approach in teaching health informatics online. Students were able to establish relationships and conduct professional conversations across disciplines and international boundaries using content management software. This graduate course can be used as a part of informatics, computer science, and/or health science programs.

Introduction: Forecasting Informatics Competencies for Nurses in the Future of Connected Health.

PubMed

Murphy, Judy; Goossen, William

2017-01-01

This introduction to the book discusses how the topic of competencies for nurses in a world of connected health needs to be addressed at the curriculum level to achieve the specific competencies for various roles, including practicing nurse, nurse teacher, nurse leader, and nursing informatics specialists. It looks back at milestone publications from the international Nursing Informatics post conferences that still serve a purpose for inspiring developments today and looks forward to the way nurses can use connected health to improve the health and health care for their patients. Specific emerging topics in health information technology are addressed as well, such as semantics, genetics, big data, eHealth and social media.

Big Data: Are Biomedical and Health Informatics Training Programs Ready?

PubMed Central

Hersh, W.; Ganesh, A. U. Jai

2014-01-01

Summary Objectives The growing volume and diversity of health and biomedical data indicate that the era of Big Data has arrived for healthcare. This has many implications for informatics, not only in terms of implementing and evaluating information systems, but also for the work and training of informatics researchers and professionals. This article addresses the question: What do biomedical and health informaticians working in analytics and Big Data need to know? Methods We hypothesize a set of skills that we hope will be discussed among academic and other informaticians. Results The set of skills includes: Programming - especially with data-oriented tools, such as SQL and statistical programming languages; Statistics - working knowledge to apply tools and techniques; Domain knowledge - depending on one’s area of work, bioscience or health care; and Communication - being able to understand needs of people and organizations, and articulate results back to them. Conclusions Biomedical and health informatics educational programs must introduce concepts of analytics, Big Data, and the underlying skills to use and apply them into their curricula. The development of new coursework should focus on those who will become experts, with training aiming to provide skills in “deep analytical talent” as well as those who need knowledge to support such individuals. PMID:25123740

Another HISA--the new standard: health informatics--service architecture.

PubMed

Klein, Gunnar O; Sottile, Pier Angelo; Endsleff, Frederik

2007-01-01

In addition to the meaning as Health Informatics Society of Australia, HISA is the acronym used for the new European Standard: Health Informatics - Service Architecture. This EN 12967 standard has been developed by CEN - the federation of 29 national standards bodies in Europe. This standard defines the essential elements of a Service Oriented Architecture and a methodology for localization particularly useful for large healthcare organizations. It is based on the Open Distributed Processing (ODP) framework from ISO 10746 and contains the following parts: Part 1: Enterprise viewpoint. Part 2: Information viewpoint. Part 3: Computational viewpoint. This standard is now also the starting point for the consideration for an International standard in ISO/TC 215. The basic principles with a set of health specific middleware services as a common platform for various applications for regional health information systems, or large integrated hospital information systems, are well established following a previous prestandard. Examples of large scale deployments in Sweden, Denmark and Italy are described.

Patient Centred Systems: Techno-Anthropological reflections on the challenges of 'meaningfully engaging' patients within health informatics research.

PubMed

Wong, Ming-Chao; Almond, Helen; Cummings, Elizabeth; Roehrer, Erin; Showell, Chris; Turner, Paul

2015-01-01

This chapter explores how Techno-Anthropology can contribute to more explicitly professional and ethically responsible reflections on the socio-technical practices involved in meaningfully engaging patients in health informatics research. The chapter draws on insights from health informatics research projects focused on chronic disease and self-management conducted in Tasmania during the last 10 years. Through these projects the paper explores three topics of relevance to 'meaningful engagement' with patients: (i) Patient Self-Management and Chronic Disease (ii) Patients as Users in Health Informatics research, and, (iii) Evaluations of outcomes in Health and Health Informatics Interventions. Techno-Anthropological reflections are then discussed through the concepts of liminality, polyphony and power. This chapter argues that beyond its contribution to methodology, an important role for Techno-Anthropology in patient centred health informatics research may be its capacity to support new ways of conceptualising and critically reflecting on the construction and mediation of patients' needs, values and perspectives.

Health Departments’ Engagement in Emergency Preparedness Activities: The Influence of Health Informatics Capacity

PubMed Central

Shah, Gulzar H.; Newell, Bobbie; Whitworth, Ruth E.

2016-01-01

Background: Local health departments (LHDs) operate in a complex and dynamic public health landscape, with changing demands on their emergency response capacities. Informatics capacities might play an instrumental role in aiding LHDs emergency preparedness. This study aimed to explore the extent to which LHDs’ informatics capacities are associated with their activity level in emergency preparedness and to identify which health informatics capacities are associated with improved emergency preparedness. Methods: We used the 2013 National Profile of LHDs study to perform Poisson regression of emergency preparedness activities. Results: Only 38.3% of LHDs participated in full-scale exercises or drills for an emergency in the 12 months period prior to the survey, but a much larger proportion provided emergency preparedness training to staff (84.3%), and/or participated in tabletop exercises (76.4%). Our multivariable analysis showed that after adjusting for several resource-related LHD characteristics, LHDs with more of the 6 information systems still tend to have slightly more preparedness activities. In addition, having a designated emergency preparedness coordinator, and having one or more emergency preparedness staff were among the most significant factors associated with LHDs performing more emergency preparedness activities. Conclusion: LHDs might want to utilize better health information systems and information technology tools to improve their activity level in emergency preparedness, through improved information dissemination, and evidence collection. PMID:27694648

A curricula-based comparison of biomedical and health informatics programs in the USA

PubMed Central

Hemminger, Bradley M

2011-01-01

Objective The field of Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI) continues to define itself, and there are many educational programs offering ‘informatics’ degrees with varied foci. The goal of this study was to develop a scheme for systematic comparison of programs across the entire BMHI spectrum and to identify commonalities among informatics curricula. Design Guided by several published competency sets, a grounded theory approach was used to develop a program/curricula categorization scheme based on the descriptions of 636 courses offered by 73 public health, nursing, health, medical, and bioinformatics programs in the USA. The scheme was then used to compare the programs in the aforementioned five informatics disciplines. Results The authors developed a Course-Based Informatics Program Categorization (CBIPC) scheme that can be used both to classify coursework for any BMHI educational program and to compare programs from the same or related disciplines. The application of CBIPC scheme to the analysis of public health, nursing, health, medical, and bioinformatics programs reveals distinct intradisciplinary curricular patterns and a common core of courses across the entire BMHI education domain. Limitations The study is based on descriptions of courses from the university's webpages. Thus, it is limited to sampling courses at one moment in time, and classification for the coding scheme is based primarily on course titles and course descriptions. Conclusion The CBIPC scheme combines empirical data about educational curricula from diverse informatics programs and several published competency sets. It also provides a foundation for discussion of BMHI education as a whole and can help define subdisciplinary competencies. PMID:21292707

Health Informatics via Machine Learning for the Clinical Management of Patients.

PubMed

Clifton, D A; Niehaus, K E; Charlton, P; Colopy, G W

2015-08-13

To review how health informatics systems based on machine learning methods have impacted the clinical management of patients, by affecting clinical practice. We reviewed literature from 2010-2015 from databases such as Pubmed, IEEE xplore, and INSPEC, in which methods based on machine learning are likely to be reported. We bring together a broad body of literature, aiming to identify those leading examples of health informatics that have advanced the methodology of machine learning. While individual methods may have further examples that might be added, we have chosen some of the most representative, informative exemplars in each case. Our survey highlights that, while much research is taking place in this high-profile field, examples of those that affect the clinical management of patients are seldom found. We show that substantial progress is being made in terms of methodology, often by data scientists working in close collaboration with clinical groups. Health informatics systems based on machine learning are in their infancy and the translation of such systems into clinical management has yet to be performed at scale.

Health informatics model for helminthiasis in Thailand.

PubMed

Nithikathkul, C; Trevanich, A; Wongsaroj, T; Wongsawad, C; Reungsang, P

2017-09-01

At the beginning of the new millennium, helminth infections continue to be prevalent, particularly among impoverished populations. This study attempts to create the first health informatics model of helminthiasis in Thailand. The authors investigate how a health informatics model could be used to predict the control and eradication in a national control campaign. Fish-borne helminthiasis caused by Opisthorchis viverrini remains a major public health problem in many parts of South-East Asia, including Thailand, Lao PDR, Vietnam and Cambodia. The epicentre of this disease is located in north-east Thailand, where high prevalence coexists with a high incidence of cholangiocarcinoma (CHCA). The current report was conducted to determine a mathematical model of surveillance for helminthiasis while also using a geographic information system. The fish-borne helminthiasis model or the predicted equation was Y1 = 3.028 + 0.020 (elevation) - 2.098 (clay). For soil-transmitted helminthiasis, the mathematical model or the predicted equation was Y2 = -1.559 + 0.005 (rainfall) + 0.004 (elevation) - 2.198 (clay). The Ministry of Public Health has concluded that mass treatment for helminthiasis in the Thai population, targeting high-risk individuals, may be a cost-effective way to allocate limited funds. This type of approach, as well as further study on the correlation of clinical symptoms with environmental and geographic information, may offer a novel strategy to the helminth crisis.

Integrating community-based participatory research and informatics approaches to improve the engagement and health of underserved populations

PubMed Central

Schaefbauer, Chris L; Campbell, Terrance R; Senteio, Charles; Siek, Katie A; Bakken, Suzanne; Veinot, Tiffany C

2016-01-01

Objective We compare 5 health informatics research projects that applied community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches with the goal of extending existing CBPR principles to address issues specific to health informatics research. Materials and methods We conducted a cross-case analysis of 5 diverse case studies with 1 common element: integration of CBPR approaches into health informatics research. After reviewing publications and other case-related materials, all coauthors engaged in collaborative discussions focused on CBPR. Researchers mapped each case to an existing CBPR framework, examined each case individually for success factors and barriers, and identified common patterns across cases. Results Benefits of applying CBPR approaches to health informatics research across the cases included the following: developing more relevant research with wider impact, greater engagement with diverse populations, improved internal validity, more rapid translation of research into action, and the development of people. Challenges of applying CBPR to health informatics research included requirements to develop strong, sustainable academic-community partnerships and mismatches related to cultural and temporal factors. Several technology-related challenges, including needs to define ownership of technology outputs and to build technical capacity with community partners, also emerged from our analysis. Finally, we created several principles that extended an existing CBPR framework to specifically address health informatics research requirements. Conclusions Our cross-case analysis yielded valuable insights regarding CBPR implementation in health informatics research and identified valuable lessons useful for future CBPR-based research. The benefits of applying CBPR approaches can be significant, particularly in engaging populations that are typically underserved by health care and in designing patient-facing technology. PMID:26228766

Moving toward a United States strategic plan in primary care informatics: a White Paper of the Primary Care Informatics Working Group, American Medical Informatics Association.

PubMed

Little, David R; Zapp, John A; Mullins, Henry C; Zuckerman, Alan E; Teasdale, Sheila; Johnson, Kevin B

2003-01-01

The Primary Care Informatics Working Group (PCIWG) of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) has identified the absence of a national strategy for primary care informatics. Under PCIWG leadership, major national and international societies have come together to create the National Alliance for Primary Care Informatics (NAPCI), to promote a connection between the informatics community and the organisations that support primary care. The PCIWG clinical practice subcommittee has recognised the necessity of a global needs assessment, and proposed work in point-of-care technology, clinical vocabularies, and ambulatory electronic medical record development. Educational needs include a consensus statement on informatics competencies, recommendations for curriculum and teaching methods, and methodologies to evaluate their effectiveness. The research subcommittee seeks to define a primary care informatics research agenda, and to support and disseminate informatics research throughout the primary care community. The AMIA board of directors has enthusiastically endorsed the conceptual basis for this White Paper.

Emergence of a new consumer health informatics framework: introducing the healthcare organization.

PubMed

Reid, Paulette; Borycki, Elizabeth M

2011-01-01

Healthcare consumers are increasingly seeking reliable forms of health information on the Internet that can be used to support health related decision-making. Frameworks that have been developed and tested in the field of health informatics have attempted to describe the effects of the Internet upon the health care consumer and physician relationship. More recently, health care organizations are responding by providing information such as hospital wait lists or strategies for self-managing disease, and this information is being provided on organizational web-sites. The authors of this paper propose that current conceptualizations of the relationship between the Internet, physicians and patients are limited from a consumer informatics perspective and may need to be extended to include healthcare organizations.

Consumer Health Informatics in the Context of Engaged Citizens and eHealth Services - A New CHI Meta Model.

PubMed

Wiesner, Martin; Griebel, Lena; Becker, Kurt; Pobiruchin, Monika

2016-01-01

Consumer Health Informatics (CHI) is a relatively new and interdisciplinary field in Medical Informatics. It focuses on consumer- rather than professional-centered services. However, the definitions and understanding of a) what is a "consumer"? or b) what is health technology in the context of CHI? and c) what factors and actors influence the usage of eHealth services? vary widely. The CHI special interest group (SIG) - associated with the German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology - conducted two workshops in 2015 to improve the common understanding on these topics. The workshop outcomes, the derived CHI-specific meta model and examples how to apply this model are presented in this paper. The model supports the definition of multi-actor contexts, as it not solely reflects the conventional patient-physician relationship but also allows for the description of second health market providers.

A Health Informatics Curriculum Congruent with IS 2010 and IMIA Recommendations for an Undergraduate Degree

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Longenecker, Herbert E., Jr.; Campbell, S. Matt; Landry, Jeffrey P.; Pardue, Harold; Daigle, Roy J.

2012-01-01

In addition to being a relevant program for health information technology workers, a recently proposed Health Informatics program was designed with additional objectives in mind: that the program is compatible with the IS 2010 Model Curriculum and that it satisfies the International Medical Informatics Association recommendation for undergraduate…

Integrating experiential learning into a double degree masters program in nursing and health informatics.

PubMed

Borycki, Elizabeth M; Frisch, Noreen; Kushniruk, Andre W; McIntyre, Marjorie; Hutchinson, David

2012-01-01

In Canada there are few nurses who have advanced practice competencies in nursing informatics. This is a significant issue for regional health authorities, governments and electronic health record vendors in Canada who are implementing electronic health records. Few Schools of Nursing provide formalized opportunities for nurses to develop informatics competencies. Many of these opportunities take the form of post-baccalaureate certificate programs or individual undergraduate or graduate level courses in nursing. The purpose of this paper will be to: (1) describe the health and human resource issues in this area in Canada, (2) provide a brief overview of the design and development of a new, innovative double degree program at the intersection of nursing and health informatics that interleaves cooperative learning, (3) describe the integration of cooperative learning into this new program, and (4) outline the lessons learned in integrating cooperative education into such a graduate program.

An Informatics Approach to Establishing a Sustainable Public Health Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kriseman, Jeffrey Michael

2012-01-01

This work involved the analysis of a public health system, and the design, development and deployment of enterprise informatics architecture, and sustainable community methods to address problems with the current public health system. Specifically, assessment of the Nationally Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (NNDSS) was instrumental in…

Applications of information and communications technologies to public health: A scoping review using the MeSH term: "public health informatics".

PubMed

Bhattarai, Arjun Kumar; Zarrin, Aein; Lee, Joon

2017-01-01

To investigate the public health domains, key informatics concepts, and information and communications technologies (ICTs) applied in articles that are tagged with the MeSH term "public health informatics" and primarily focus on applying ICTs to public health. The MeSH term "public health informatics" was searched on MEDLINE-PubMed. The results of the search were then screened in two steps in order to only include articles about applying ICTs to public health problems. First, articles were screened based on their titles and abstracts. Second, a full-text review was conducted to ensure the relevance of the included articles. All articles were charted based on public health domain, information technology, article type, and informatics concept. 515 articles were included. Communicable disease monitoring (N=235), public health policy and research (N=201), and public health awareness (N=85) constituted the majority of the articles. Inconsistent results were found regarding the validity of syndromic surveillance and the effectiveness of PHI integration within the healthcare systems. PHI articles with an ICT focus cover a wide range of themes. Collectively, the included articles emphasized the need for further research in interoperability, data quality, appropriate data sources, accessible health information, and communication. The limitations of the study include:1) only one database was searched; 2) by using MeSH tags as a selection criterion, PHI articles without the "public health informatics" MeSH term were excluded. Due to the multi-disciplinary nature of PHI, MeSH identifiers were not assigned consistently. Current MeSH-tagged articles indicate that a comprehensive approach is required to integrate PHI into the healthcare system.

Integrating Electronic Health Record Competencies into Undergraduate Health Informatics Education.

PubMed

Borycki, Elizabeth M; Griffith, Janessa; Kushniruk, Andre W

2016-01-01

In this paper we report on our findings arising from a qualitative, interview study of students' experiences in an undergraduate health informatics program. Our findings suggest that electronic health record competencies need to be integrated into an undergraduate curriculum. Participants suggested that there is a need to educate students about the use of the EHR, followed by best practices around interface design, workflow, and implementation with this work culminating in students spearheading the design of the technology as part of their educational program of study.

Pharmacovigilance and Biomedical Informatics: A Model for Future Development.

PubMed

Beninger, Paul; Ibara, Michael A

2016-12-01

The discipline of pharmacovigilance is rooted in the aftermath of the thalidomide tragedy of 1961. It has evolved as a result of collaborative efforts by many individuals and organizations, including physicians, patients, Health Authorities, universities, industry, the World Health Organization, the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences, and the International Conference on Harmonisation. Biomedical informatics is rooted in technologically based methodologies and has evolved at the speed of computer technology. The purpose of this review is to bring a novel lens to pharmacovigilance, looking at the evolution and development of the field of pharmacovigilance from the perspective of biomedical informatics, with the explicit goal of providing a foundation for discussion of the future direction of pharmacovigilance as a discipline. For this review, we searched [publication trend for the log 10 value of the numbers of publications identified in PubMed] using the key words [informatics (INF), pharmacovigilance (PV), phar-macovigilance þ informatics (PV þ INF)], for [study types] articles published between [1994-2015]. We manually searched the reference lists of identified articles for additional information. Biomedical informatics has made significant contributions to the infrastructural development of pharmacovigilance. However, there has not otherwise been a systematic assessment of the role of biomedical informatics in enhancing the field of pharmacovigilance, and there has been little cross-discipline scholarship. Rapidly developing innovations in biomedical informatics pose a challenge to pharmacovigilance in finding ways to include new sources of safety information, including social media, massively linked databases, and mobile and wearable wellness applications and sensors. With biomedical informatics as a lens, it is evident that certain aspects of pharmacovigilance are evolving more slowly. However, the high levels of mutual interest in

Developing an evidence-based public health informatics course.

PubMed

Yu, Xinyu; Xie, Yue; Pan, Xuequn; Mayfield-Johnson, Susan; Whipple, Jessica; Azadbakht, Elena

2015-10-01

This study assessed the need to develop a public health informatics (PHI) introductory course and determine contents of such a course. Community assessments employing focus group interviews and an online survey were utilized to determine course need and content. Results revealed a need to provide PHI training to graduate public health students and suggested broad course content requirements. Results indicated lack of awareness of libraries and librarians as sources of public health information. A graduate PHI course was developed and delivered. Additionally, implementation of a subject guide increased the library's profile.

Medical Informatics Education

PubMed Central

Patton, Gregory A.; Gardner, Reed M.

1999-01-01

The University of Utah has been educating health professionals in medical informatics since 1964. Over the 35 years since the program's inception, 272 graduate students have studied in the department. Most students have been male (80 percent) and have come from the United States (75 percent). Students entering the program have had diverse educational backgrounds, most commonly in medicine, engineering, computer science, or biology (59 percent of all informatics students). A total of 209 graduate degrees have been awarded, with an overall graduation rate of 87 percent since the program's start. Alumni are located in the United States (91 percent) and abroad (9 percent); half (51 percent) have remained in Utah. Former students are employed in a wide variety of jobs, primarily concerned with the application of medical informatics in sizable health care delivery organizations. Trends toward increasing managerial responsibility for medical informatics graduates and the emergence of the chief information officer role are noted. PMID:10579604

Design of a Community-Engaged Health Informatics Platform with an Architecture of Participation.

PubMed

Millery, Mari; Ramos, Wilson; Lien, Chueh; Aguirre, Alejandra N; Kukafka, Rita

2015-01-01

Community-engaged health informatics (CEHI) applies information technology and participatory approaches to improve the health of communities. Our objective was to translate the concept of CEHI into a usable and replicable informatics platform that will facilitate community-engaged practice and research. The setting is a diverse urban neighborhood in New York City. The methods included community asset mapping, stakeholder interviews, logic modeling, analysis of affordances in open-source tools, elicitation of use cases and requirements, and a survey of early adopters. Based on synthesis of data collected, GetHealthyHeigths.org (GHH) was developed using open-source LAMP stack and Drupal content management software. Drupal's organic groups module was used for novel participatory functionality, along with detailed user roles and permissions. Future work includes evaluation of GHH and its impact on agency and service networks. We plan to expand GHH with additional functionality to further support CEHI by combining informatics solutions with community engagement to improve health.

Design of a Community-Engaged Health Informatics Platform with an Architecture of Participation

PubMed Central

Millery, Mari; Ramos, Wilson; Lien, Chueh; Aguirre, Alejandra N.; Kukafka, Rita

2015-01-01

Community-engaged health informatics (CEHI) applies information technology and participatory approaches to improve the health of communities. Our objective was to translate the concept of CEHI into a usable and replicable informatics platform that will facilitate community-engaged practice and research. The setting is a diverse urban neighborhood in New York City. The methods included community asset mapping, stakeholder interviews, logic modeling, analysis of affordances in open-source tools, elicitation of use cases and requirements, and a survey of early adopters. Based on synthesis of data collected, GetHealthyHeigths.org (GHH) was developed using open-source LAMP stack and Drupal content management software. Drupal’s organic groups module was used for novel participatory functionality, along with detailed user roles and permissions. Future work includes evaluation of GHH and its impact on agency and service networks. We plan to expand GHH with additional functionality to further support CEHI by combining informatics solutions with community engagement to improve health. PMID:26958227

Cognitive engineering and health informatics: Applications and intersections.

PubMed

Hettinger, A Zachary; Roth, Emilie M; Bisantz, Ann M

2017-03-01

Cognitive engineering is an applied field with roots in both cognitive science and engineering that has been used to support design of information displays, decision support, human-automation interaction, and training in numerous high risk domains ranging from nuclear power plant control to transportation and defense systems. Cognitive engineering provides a set of structured, analytic methods for data collection and analysis that intersect with and complement methods of Cognitive Informatics. These methods support discovery of aspects of the work that make performance challenging, as well as the knowledge, skills, and strategies that experts use to meet those challenges. Importantly, cognitive engineering methods provide novel representations that highlight the inherent complexities of the work domain and traceable links between the results of cognitive analyses and actionable design requirements. This article provides an overview of relevant cognitive engineering methods, and illustrates how they have been applied to the design of health information technology (HIT) systems. Additionally, although cognitive engineering methods have been applied in the design of user-centered informatics systems, methods drawn from informatics are not typically incorporated into a cognitive engineering analysis. This article presents a discussion regarding ways in which data-rich methods can inform cognitive engineering. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Clinical Research Informatics and Electronic Health Record Data

PubMed Central

Horvath, M. M.; Rusincovitch, S. A.

2014-01-01

Summary Objectives The goal of this survey is to discuss the impact of the growing availability of electronic health record (EHR) data on the evolving field of Clinical Research Informatics (CRI), which is the union of biomedical research and informatics. Results Major challenges for the use of EHR-derived data for research include the lack of standard methods for ensuring that data quality, completeness, and provenance are sufficient to assess the appropriateness of its use for research. Areas that need continued emphasis include methods for integrating data from heterogeneous sources, guidelines (including explicit phenotype definitions) for using these data in both pragmatic clinical trials and observational investigations, strong data governance to better understand and control quality of enterprise data, and promotion of national standards for representing and using clinical data. Conclusions The use of EHR data has become a priority in CRI. Awareness of underlying clinical data collection processes will be essential in order to leverage these data for clinical research and patient care, and will require multi-disciplinary teams representing clinical research, informatics, and healthcare operations. Considerations for the use of EHR data provide a starting point for practical applications and a CRI research agenda, which will be facilitated by CRI’s key role in the infrastructure of a learning healthcare system. PMID:25123746

Clinical research informatics and electronic health record data.

PubMed

Richesson, R L; Horvath, M M; Rusincovitch, S A

2014-08-15

The goal of this survey is to discuss the impact of the growing availability of electronic health record (EHR) data on the evolving field of Clinical Research Informatics (CRI), which is the union of biomedical research and informatics. Major challenges for the use of EHR-derived data for research include the lack of standard methods for ensuring that data quality, completeness, and provenance are sufficient to assess the appropriateness of its use for research. Areas that need continued emphasis include methods for integrating data from heterogeneous sources, guidelines (including explicit phenotype definitions) for using these data in both pragmatic clinical trials and observational investigations, strong data governance to better understand and control quality of enterprise data, and promotion of national standards for representing and using clinical data. The use of EHR data has become a priority in CRI. Awareness of underlying clinical data collection processes will be essential in order to leverage these data for clinical research and patient care, and will require multi-disciplinary teams representing clinical research, informatics, and healthcare operations. Considerations for the use of EHR data provide a starting point for practical applications and a CRI research agenda, which will be facilitated by CRI's key role in the infrastructure of a learning healthcare system.

Incorporating Health Information Technology and Pharmacy Informatics in a Pharmacy Professional Didactic Curriculum -with a Team-based Learning Approach.

PubMed

Hincapie, Ana L; Cutler, Timothy W; Fingado, Amanda R

2016-08-25

Objective. To incorporate a pharmacy informatics program in the didactic curriculum of a team-based learning institution and to assess students' knowledge of and confidence with health informatics during the course. Design. A previously developed online pharmacy informatics course was adapted and implemented into a team-based learning (TBL) 3-credit-hour drug information course for doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students in their second didactic year. During a period of five weeks (15 contact hours), students used the online pharmacy informatics modules as part of their readiness assurance process. Additional material was developed to comply with the TBL principles. Online pre/postsurveys were administered to evaluate knowledge gained and students' perceptions of the informatics program. Assessment. Eighty-three second-year students (84% response rate) completed the surveys. Participants' knowledge of electronic health records, computerized physician order entry, pharmacy information systems, and clinical decision support was significantly improved. Additionally, their confidence significantly improved in terms of describing health informatics terminology, describing the benefits and barriers of using health information technology, and understanding reasons for systematically processing health information. Conclusion. Students responded favorably to the incorporation of pharmacy informatics content into a drug information course using a TBL approach. Students met the learning objectives of seven thematic areas and had positive attitudes toward the course after its completion.

The next generation Internet and health care: a civics lesson for the informatics community.

PubMed

Shortliffe, E H

1998-01-01

The Internet provides one of the most compelling examples of the way in which government research investments can, in time, lead to innovations of broad social and economic impact. This paper reviews the history of the Internet's evolution, emphasizing in particular its relationship to medical informatics and to the nation's health-care system. Current national research programs are summarized and the need for more involvement by the informatics community and by federal health-care agencies is emphasized.

The next generation Internet and health care: a civics lesson for the informatics community.

PubMed Central

Shortliffe, E. H.

1998-01-01

The Internet provides one of the most compelling examples of the way in which government research investments can, in time, lead to innovations of broad social and economic impact. This paper reviews the history of the Internet's evolution, emphasizing in particular its relationship to medical informatics and to the nation's health-care system. Current national research programs are summarized and the need for more involvement by the informatics community and by federal health-care agencies is emphasized. PMID:9929176

Health informatics and analytics - building a program to integrate business analytics across clinical and administrative disciplines.

PubMed

Tremblay, Monica Chiarini; Deckard, Gloria J; Klein, Richard

2016-07-01

Health care organizations must develop integrated health information systems to respond to the numerous government mandates driving the movement toward reimbursement models emphasizing value-based and accountable care. Success in this transition requires integrated data analytics, supported by the combination of health informatics, interoperability, business process design, and advanced decision support tools. This case study presents the development of a master's level cross- and multidisciplinary informatics program offered through a business school. The program provides students from diverse backgrounds with the knowledge, leadership, and practical application skills of health informatics, information systems, and data analytics that bridge the interests of clinical and nonclinical professionals. This case presents the actions taken and challenges encountered in navigating intra-university politics, specifying curriculum, recruiting the requisite interdisciplinary faculty, innovating the educational format, managing students with diverse educational and professional backgrounds, and balancing multiple accreditation agencies. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The challenge of ubiquitous computing in health care: technology, concepts and solutions. Findings from the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics 2005.

PubMed

Bott, O J; Ammenwerth, E; Brigl, B; Knaup, P; Lang, E; Pilgram, R; Pfeifer, B; Ruderich, F; Wolff, A C; Haux, R; Kulikowski, C

2005-01-01

To review recent research efforts in the field of ubiquitous computing in health care. To identify current research trends and further challenges for medical informatics. Analysis of the contents of the Yearbook on Medical Informatics 2005 of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA). The Yearbook of Medical Informatics 2005 includes 34 original papers selected from 22 peer-reviewed scientific journals related to several distinct research areas: health and clinical management, patient records, health information systems, medical signal processing and biomedical imaging, decision support, knowledge representation and management, education and consumer informatics as well as bioinformatics. A special section on ubiquitous health care systems is devoted to recent developments in the application of ubiquitous computing in health care. Besides additional synoptical reviews of each of the sections the Yearbook includes invited reviews concerning E-Health strategies, primary care informatics and wearable healthcare. Several publications demonstrate the potential of ubiquitous computing to enhance effectiveness of health services delivery and organization. But ubiquitous computing is also a societal challenge, caused by the surrounding but unobtrusive character of this technology. Contributions from nearly all of the established sub-disciplines of medical informatics are demanded to turn the visions of this promising new research field into reality.

Health Informatics as an ABET-CAC Accreditable IS Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Landry, Jeffrey P.; Daigle, Roy J.; Pardue, Harold; Longenecker, Herbert E., Jr.; Campbell, S. Matt

2012-01-01

This paper builds on prior work defending innovative information systems programs as ABET-accreditable. A proposal for a four-year degree program in health informatics, initiated at the authors' university to combat enrollment declines and to therefore help information systems to survive and thrive, is described. The program proposal is then…

Evaluation of Founding Members of the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI) Based on Google Scholar and Scopus Parameters

PubMed Central

Masic, Izet

2017-01-01

Introduction: The International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI) is established by International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) which is the world body for health and biomedical informatics. The Academy will serve as an honor society that recognizes expertise in biomedical and health informatics internationally. Academy membership will be one of the highest honors in the international field of biomedical and health informatics. Aim: To present scientometric analysis of founding members of the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics, to evaluate members and their scientific rating. Material and methods: The work has an analytical character and presents analysis of the data obtained from the Google Scholar and Scopus database. Results are shown through number of cases, percentage and graphically. Results: The analysis showed a significant correlation between the Academy and the country (continent) of origin of the academician. In IAHSI are mainly represented academics originating from Europe - 40 members (33,3%), North America - 39 members (32,5%), Asia - 20 members (16,6%), South America - 9 members (7,5%), Australia - 7 members (5,8%), while only 5 members or 4,16% come from Africa. Conclusion: Criteria for number of representatives of each continent to main academic communities are relatively questionable, as this analysis showed. Development of Health Sciences Informatics should be the main purpose, and it should be evenly distributed with slight deviations in number of representatives of each continent. PMID:29284909

Evaluation of Founding Members of the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI) Based on Google Scholar and Scopus Parameters.

PubMed

Masic, Izet

2017-12-01

The International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI) is established by International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) which is the world body for health and biomedical informatics. The Academy will serve as an honor society that recognizes expertise in biomedical and health informatics internationally. Academy membership will be one of the highest honors in the international field of biomedical and health informatics. To present scientometric analysis of founding members of the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics, to evaluate members and their scientific rating. The work has an analytical character and presents analysis of the data obtained from the Google Scholar and Scopus database. Results are shown through number of cases, percentage and graphically. The analysis showed a significant correlation between the Academy and the country (continent) of origin of the academician. In IAHSI are mainly represented academics originating from Europe - 40 members (33,3%), North America - 39 members (32,5%), Asia - 20 members (16,6%), South America - 9 members (7,5%), Australia - 7 members (5,8%), while only 5 members or 4,16% come from Africa. Criteria for number of representatives of each continent to main academic communities are relatively questionable, as this analysis showed. Development of Health Sciences Informatics should be the main purpose, and it should be evenly distributed with slight deviations in number of representatives of each continent.

Evidence-based Practice. Findings from the Section on Education and Consumer Health Informatics.

PubMed

Staccini, P; Douali, N

2013-01-01

To provide an overview of outstanding current research conducted in Education and Consumer Informatics. Synopsis of the articles on education and consumer health informatics published in 2012 and selected for the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics 2013. Architecture of monitoring or telehealth information systems for patients with chronic disease must include wireless devices to aid in the collection of personal data. Data acquisition technologies have an impact on patients' willingness to participate in telehealth programmes. Patients are more likely to prefer mobile applications over web-based applications. Social media is widely used by clinicians. Especially younger clinicians use it for personal purposes and for reference materials retrieval. Questions remain on optimal training requirements and on the effects on clinician behavior and on patient outcomes. A high level of e-Health literacy by patients will promote increased adoption and utilization of personal health records. The selected articles highlight the need for training of clinicians to become aware of existing telehealth systems, in order to correctly inform and guide patients to take part in telehealth systems and adopt personal healthcare records (PHR).

Medical Informatics in Academic Health Science Centers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frisse, Mark E.

1992-01-01

An analysis of the state of medical informatics, the application of computer and information technology to biomedicine, looks at trends and concerns, including integration of traditionally distinct enterprises (clinical information systems, financial information, scholarly support activities, infrastructures); informatics career choice and…

Food Safety Informatics: A Public Health Imperative

PubMed Central

Tucker, Cynthia A.; Larkin, Stephanie N.; Akers, Timothy A.

2011-01-01

To date, little has been written about the implementation of utilizing food safety informatics as a technological tool to protect consumers, in real-time, against foodborne illnesses. Food safety outbreaks have become a major public health problem, causing an estimated 48 million illnesses, 128,000 hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. Yet, government inspectors/regulators that monitor foodservice operations struggle with how to collect, organize, and analyze data; implement, monitor, and enforce safe food systems. Currently, standardized technologies have not been implemented to efficiently establish “near-in-time” or “just-in-time” electronic awareness to enhance early detection of public health threats regarding food safety. To address the potential impact of collection, organization and analyses of data in a foodservice operation, a wireless food safety informatics (FSI) tool was pilot tested at a university student foodservice center. The technological platform in this test collected data every six minutes over a 24 hour period, across two primary domains: time and temperatures within freezers, walk-in refrigerators and dry storage areas. The results of this pilot study briefly illustrated how technology can assist in food safety surveillance and monitoring by efficiently detecting food safety abnormalities related to time and temperatures so that efficient and proper response in “real time” can be addressed to prevent potential foodborne illnesses. PMID:23569605

An Approach for All in Pharmacy Informatics Education.

PubMed

Fox, Brent I; Flynn, Allen; Clauson, Kevin A; Seaton, Terry L; Breeden, Elizabeth

2017-03-25

Computerization is transforming health care. All clinicians are users of health information technology (HIT). Understanding fundamental principles of informatics, the field focused on information needs and uses, is essential if HIT is going to support improved patient outcomes. Informatics education for clinicians is a national priority. Additionally, some informatics experts are needed to bring about innovations in HIT. A common approach to pharmacy informatics education has been slow to develop. Meanwhile, accreditation standards for informatics in pharmacy education continue to evolve. A gap remains in the implementation of informatics education for all pharmacy students and it is unclear what expert informatics training should cover. In this article, we propose the first of two complementary approaches to informatics education in pharmacy: to incorporate fundamental informatics education into pharmacy curricula for all students. The second approach, to train those students interested in becoming informatics experts to design, develop, implement, and evaluate HIT, will be presented in a subsequent issue of the Journal .

An Approach for All in Pharmacy Informatics Education

PubMed Central

Flynn, Allen; Clauson, Kevin A.; Seaton, Terry L.; Breeden, Elizabeth

2017-01-01

Computerization is transforming health care. All clinicians are users of health information technology (HIT). Understanding fundamental principles of informatics, the field focused on information needs and uses, is essential if HIT is going to support improved patient outcomes. Informatics education for clinicians is a national priority. Additionally, some informatics experts are needed to bring about innovations in HIT. A common approach to pharmacy informatics education has been slow to develop. Meanwhile, accreditation standards for informatics in pharmacy education continue to evolve. A gap remains in the implementation of informatics education for all pharmacy students and it is unclear what expert informatics training should cover. In this article, we propose the first of two complementary approaches to informatics education in pharmacy: to incorporate fundamental informatics education into pharmacy curricula for all students. The second approach, to train those students interested in becoming informatics experts to design, develop, implement, and evaluate HIT, will be presented in a subsequent issue of the Journal. PMID:28381898

Crossing the Chasm: Information Technology to Biomedical Informatics

PubMed Central

Fahy, Brenda G.; Balke, C. William; Umberger, Gloria H.; Talbert, Jeffery; Canales, Denise Niles; Steltenkamp, Carol L.; Conigliaro, Joseph

2011-01-01

Accelerating the translation of new scientific discoveries to improve human health and disease management is the overall goal of a series of initiatives integrated in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) “Roadmap for Medical Research.” The Clinical and Translational Research Award (CTSA) program is, arguably, the most visible component of the NIH Roadmap providing resources to institutions to transform their clinical and translational research enterprises along the goals of the Roadmap. The CTSA program emphasizes biomedical informatics as a critical component for the accomplishment of the NIH’s translational objectives. To be optimally effective, emerging biomedical informatics programs must link with the information technology (IT) platforms of the enterprise clinical operations within academic health centers. This report details one academic health center’s transdisciplinary initiative to create an integrated academic discipline of biomedical informatics through the development of its infrastructure for clinical and translational science infrastructure and response to the CTSA mechanism. This approach required a detailed informatics strategy to accomplish these goals. This transdisciplinary initiative was the impetus for creation of a specialized biomedical informatics core, the Center for Biomedical Informatics (CBI). Development of the CBI codified the need to incorporate medical informatics including quality and safety informatics and enterprise clinical information systems within the CBI. This paper describes the steps taken to develop the biomedical informatics infrastructure, its integration with clinical systems at one academic health center, successes achieved, and barriers encountered during these efforts. PMID:21383632

Crossing the chasm: information technology to biomedical informatics.

PubMed

Fahy, Brenda G; Balke, C William; Umberger, Gloria H; Talbert, Jeffery; Canales, Denise Niles; Steltenkamp, Carol L; Conigliaro, Joseph

2011-06-01

Accelerating the translation of new scientific discoveries to improve human health and disease management is the overall goal of a series of initiatives integrated in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) "Roadmap for Medical Research." The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program is, arguably, the most visible component of the NIH Roadmap providing resources to institutions to transform their clinical and translational research enterprises along the goals of the Roadmap. The CTSA program emphasizes biomedical informatics as a critical component for the accomplishment of the NIH's translational objectives. To be optimally effective, emerging biomedical informatics programs must link with the information technology platforms of the enterprise clinical operations within academic health centers.This report details one academic health center's transdisciplinary initiative to create an integrated academic discipline of biomedical informatics through the development of its infrastructure for clinical and translational science infrastructure and response to the CTSA mechanism. This approach required a detailed informatics strategy to accomplish these goals. This transdisciplinary initiative was the impetus for creation of a specialized biomedical informatics core, the Center for Biomedical Informatics (CBI). Development of the CBI codified the need to incorporate medical informatics including quality and safety informatics and enterprise clinical information systems within the CBI. This article describes the steps taken to develop the biomedical informatics infrastructure, its integration with clinical systems at one academic health center, successes achieved, and barriers encountered during these efforts.

Consumer Health Informatics Aspects of Direct-to-Consumer Personal Genomic Testing.

PubMed

Gray, Kathleen; Stephen, Remya; Terrill, Bronwyn; Wilson, Brenda; Middleton, Anna; Tytherleigh, Rigan; Turbitt, Erin; Gaff, Clara; Savard, Jacqueline; Hickerton, Chriselle; Newson, Ainsley; Metcalfe, Sylvia

2017-01-01

This paper uses consumer health informatics as a framework to explore whether and how direct-to-consumer personal genomic testing can be regarded as a form of information which assists consumers to manage their health. It presents findings from qualitative content analysis of web sites that offer testing services, and of transcripts from focus groups conducted as part a study of the Australian public's expectations of personal genomics. Content analysis showed that service offerings have some features of consumer health information but lack consistency. Focus group participants were mostly unfamiliar with the specifics of test reports and related information services. Some of their ideas about aids to knowledge were in line with the benefits described on provider web sites, but some expectations were inflated. People were ambivalent about whether these services would address consumers' health needs, interests and contexts and whether they would support consumers' health self-management decisions and outcomes. There is scope for consumer health informatics approaches to refine the usage and the utility of direct-to-consumer personal genomic testing. Further research may focus on how uptake is affected by consumers' health literacy or by services' engagement with consumers about what they really want.

Translational Research from an Informatics Perspective

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bernstam, Elmer; Meric-Bernstam, Funda; Johnson-Throop, Kathy A.; Turley, James P.; Smith, Jack W.

2007-01-01

Clinical and translational research (CTR) is an essential part of a sustainable global health system. Informatics is now recognized as an important en-abler of CTR and informaticians are increasingly called upon to help CTR efforts. The US National Institutes of Health mandated biomedical informatics activity as part of its new national CTR grant initiative, the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA). Traditionally, translational re-search was defined as the translation of laboratory discoveries to patient care (bench to bedside). We argue, however, that there are many other kinds of translational research. Indeed, translational re-search requires the translation of knowledge dis-covered in one domain to another domain and is therefore an information-based activity. In this panel, we will expand upon this view of translational research and present three different examples of translation to illustrate the point: 1) bench to bedside, 2) Earth to space and 3) academia to community. We will conclude with a discussion of our local translational research efforts that draw on each of the three examples.

Education review: applied medical informatics--informatics in medical education.

PubMed

Naeymi-Rad, F; Trace, D; Moidu, K; Carmony, L; Booden, T

1994-05-01

The importance of informatics training within a health sciences program is well recognized and is being implemented on an increasing scale. At Chicago Medical School (CMS), the Informatics program incorporates information technology at every stage of medical education. First-year students are offered an elective in computer topics that concentrate on basic computer literacy. Second-year students learn information management such as entry and information retrieval skills. For example, during the Introduction to Clinical Medicine course, the student is exposed to the Intelligent Medical Record-Entry (IMR-E), allowing the student to enter and organize information gathered from patient encounters. In the third year, students in the Internal Medicine rotation at Norwalk Hospital use Macintosh power books to enter and manage their patients. Patient data gathered by the student are stored in a local server in Norwalk Hospital. In the final year, we teach students the role of informatics in clinical decision making. The present senior class at CMS has been exposed to the power of medical informatics tools for several years. The use of these informatics tools at the point of care is stressed.

Social care informatics as an essential part of holistic health care: a call for action.

PubMed

Rigby, Michael; Hill, Penny; Koch, Sabine; Keeling, Debbie

2011-08-01

The authors identified the need for a cross-disciplinary research view of issues to ensure an integrated citizen-centric support to achieve optimal health of individual citizens and, in particular, the role of informatics to inform and coordinate support towards integrated and holistic care. An Exploratory Workshop was approved and sponsored by the European Science Foundation. Twenty-three participants from 15 countries attended, covering a full range of health, social care and informatics professions and disciplines. The participants found strong common ground in identifying key issues to be addressed if citizens with compromised health are to receive integrated and coordinated support to a common set of objectives, while also ensuring appropriate choice and support for citizen, family and other informal carers. At the same time, optimal health was identified as a fundamental human right, and that achieving this is a necessary priority of a caring society. Moreover, Europe has a commitment to researching and developing health informatics (e-health), though not yet giving a priority to this integration of health and social care. Specifically the following main informatics challenges to be addressed were identified: (1) to identify available information and communication needs related to different scenarios of use in the intersection between health and social care, (2) to develop and map shared ontologies, and standards for integration and/or brokerage, (3) to enable planned information access and sharing, shaping a system of trust where the patient is an active partner and policies are established considering all partners/interests, (4) to investigate the use of automatic/intelligent knowledge based and context-relevant services, and (5) empowering the citizen (or their selected agent) as co-producer through modern informatics tools, while carefully avoiding selective disempowerment of the most vulnerable. The Exploratory Workshop resulted in a unanimous

10 years experience with pioneering open access publishing in health informatics: the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR).

PubMed

Eysenbach, Gunther

2010-01-01

Peer-reviewed journals remain important vehicles for knowledge transfer and dissemination in health informatics, yet, their format, processes and business models are changing only slowly. Up to the end of last century, it was common for individual researchers and scientific organizations to leave the business of knowledge transfer to professional publishers, signing away their rights to the works in the process, which in turn impeded wider dissemination. Traditional medical informatics journals are poorly cited and the visibility and uptake of articles beyond the medical informatics community remain limited. In 1999, the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR; http://www.jmir.org) was launched, featuring several innovations including 1) ownership and copyright retained by the authors, 2) electronic-only, "lean" non-for-profit publishing, 3) openly accessible articles with a reversed business model (author pays instead of reader pays), 4) technological innovations such as automatic XML tagging and reference checking, on-the-fly PDF generation from XML, etc., enabling wide distribution in various bibliographic and full-text databases. In the past 10 years, despite limited resources, the journal has emerged as a leading journal in health informatics, and is presently ranked the top journal in the medical informatics and health services research categories by impact factor. The paper summarizes some of the features of the Journal, and uses bibliometric and access data to compare the influence of the Journal on the discipline of medical informatics and other disciplines. While traditional medical informatics journals are primarily cited by other Medical Informatics journals (33%-46% of citations), JMIR papers are to a more often cited by "end-users" (policy, public health, clinical journals), which may be partly attributable to the "open access advantage".

Entrepreneurial Health Informatics for Computer Science and Information Systems Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lawler, James; Joseph, Anthony; Narula, Stuti

2014-01-01

Corporate entrepreneurship is a critical area of curricula for computer science and information systems students. Few institutions of computer science and information systems have entrepreneurship in the curricula however. This paper presents entrepreneurial health informatics as a course in a concentration of Technology Entrepreneurship at a…

Consumer Health Informatics: Empowering Healthy-Living-Seekers Through mHealth.

PubMed

Faiola, Anthony; Holden, Richard J

People are at risk from noncommunicable diseases (NCD) and poor health habits, with interventions like medications and surgery carrying further risk of adverse effects. This paper addresses ways people are increasingly moving to healthy living medicine (HLM) to mitigate such health threats. HLM-seekers increasingly leverage mobile technologies that enable control of personal health information, collaboration with clinicians/other agents to establish healthy living practices. For example, outcomes from consumer health informatics research include empowering users to take charge of their health through active participation in decision-making about healthcare delivery. Because the success of health technology depends on its alignment/integration with a person's sociotechnical system, we introduce SEIPS 2.0 as a useful conceptual model and analytic tool. SEIPS 2.0 approaches human work (i.e., life's effortful activities) within the complexity of the design and implementation of mHealth technologies and their potential to emerge as consumer-facing NLM products that support NCDs like diabetes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Western New York regional electronic health record initiative: Healthcare informatics use from the registered nurse perspective.

PubMed

Sackett, Kay M; Erdley, W Scott; Jones, Janice

2006-01-01

This paper describes a select population of Western New York (WNY) Registered Nurses' (RN) perspectives on the use of healthcare informatics and the adoption of a regional electronic health record (EHR). A three part class assignment on healthcare informatics used a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) Analysis, and a Healthcare Informatics Schemata: A paradigm shift over time(c) timeline to determine RN perspectives about healthcare informatics use at their place of employment. Qualitative analysis of 41 RNs who completed the SWOT analysis provided positive and negative themes related to perceptions about healthcare informatics and EHR use at their place of employment. 29 healthcare organizations were aggregated by year on the timeline from 1950 through 2000. Information suggests that, RNs have the capacity to positively drive the adoption of EHRs and healthcare informatics in WNY.

Opportunities at the Intersection of Bioinformatics and Health Informatics

PubMed Central

Miller, Perry L.

2000-01-01

This paper provides a “viewpoint discussion” based on a presentation made to the 2000 Symposium of the American College of Medical Informatics. It discusses potential opportunities for researchers in health informatics to become involved in the rapidly growing field of bioinformatics, using the activities of the Yale Center for Medical Informatics as a case study. One set of opportunities occurs where bioinformatics research itself intersects with the clinical world. Examples include the correlations between individual genetic variation with clinical risk factors, disease presentation, and differential response to treatment; and the implications of including genetic test results in the patient record, which raises clinical decision support issues as well as legal and ethical issues. A second set of opportunities occurs where bioinformatics research can benefit from the technologic expertise and approaches that informaticians have used extensively in the clinical arena. Examples include database organization and knowledge representation, data mining, and modeling and simulation. Microarray technology is discussed as a specific potential area for collaboration. Related questions concern how best to establish collaborations with bioscientists so that the interests and needs of both sets of researchers can be met in a synergistic fashion, and the most appropriate home for bioinformatics in an academic medical center. PMID:10984461

Informatics for the Modern Intensive Care Unit.

PubMed

Anderson, Diana C; Jackson, Ashley A; Halpern, Neil A

Advanced informatics systems can help improve health care delivery and the environment of care for critically ill patients. However, identifying, testing, and deploying advanced informatics systems can be quite challenging. These processes often require involvement from a collaborative group of health care professionals of varied disciplines with knowledge of the complexities related to designing the modern and "smart" intensive care unit (ICU). In this article, we explore the connectivity environment within the ICU, middleware technologies to address a host of patient care initiatives, and the core informatics concepts necessary for both the design and implementation of advanced informatics systems.

Continuous quality improvement and medical informatics: the convergent synergy.

PubMed

Werth, G R; Connelly, D P

1992-01-01

Continuous quality improvement (CQI) and medical informatics specialists need to converge their efforts to create synergy for improving health care. Health care CQI needs medical informatics' expertise and technology to build the information systems needed to manage health care organizations according to quality improvement principles. Medical informatics needs CQI's philosophy and methods to build health care information systems that can evolve to meet the changing needs of clinicians and other stakeholders. This paper explores the philosophical basis for convergence of CQI and medical informatics efforts, and then examines a clinical computer workstation development project that is applying a combined approach.

Application of the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge framework in integrating an educational EMR into health informatics education.

PubMed

Bassi, Jesdeep; Kushniruk, Andre W; Borycki, Elizabeth M

2013-01-01

The discipline of health informatics is highly immersed in information technology, specifically health information systems. Students graduating from Bachelor degree programs in health informatics are expected to be familiar with a variety of systems upon entering the workforce. The adoption of systems like electronic medical records is on the rise across Canada, therefore it would be highly beneficial for students to have exposure to such systems in their coursework. While some individual instructors have done this to some extent on an ad hoc basis, formal strategies for EMR integration do not exist. A prominent framework for technology integration in learning that has been applied in many scientific disciplines is the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) framework. This paper describes how TPCK was used and applied as the guiding conceptual framework for exploring the integration of an educational EMR into undergraduate health informatics education.

Evidence-based practice for mere mortals: the role of informatics and health services research.

PubMed

Sim, Ida; Sanders, Gillian D; McDonald, Kathryn M

2002-04-01

The poor translation of evidence into practice is a well-known problem. Hopes are high that information technology can help make evidence-based practice feasible for mere mortal physicians. In this paper, we draw upon the methods and perspectives of clinical practice, medical informatics, and health services research to analyze the gap between evidence and action, and to argue that computing systems for bridging this gap should incorporate both informatics and health services research expertise. We discuss 2 illustrative systems--trial banks and a web-based system to develop and disseminate evidence-based guidelines (alchemist)--and conclude with a research and training agenda.

Smartphone as a personal, pervasive health informatics services platform: literature review.

PubMed

Wac, K

2012-01-01

The article provides an overview of current trends in personal sensor, signal and imaging informatics, that are based on emerging mobile computing and communications technologies enclosed in a smartphone and enabling the provision of personal, pervasive health informatics services. The article reviews examples of these trends from the PubMed and Google scholar literature search engines, which, by no means claim to be complete, as the field is evolving and some recent advances may not be documented yet. There exist critical technological advances in the surveyed smartphone technologies, employed in provision and improvement of diagnosis, acute and chronic treatment and rehabilitation health services, as well as in education and training of healthcare practitioners. However, the most emerging trend relates to a routine application of these technologies in a prevention/wellness sector, helping its users in self-care to stay healthy. Smartphone-based personal health informatics services exist, but still have a long way to go to become an everyday, personalized healthcare-provisioning tool in the medical field and in a clinical practice. Key main challenge for their widespread adoption involve lack of user acceptance striving from variable credibility and reliability of applications and solutions as they a) lack evidence- based approach; b) have low levels of medical professional involvement in their design and content; c) are provided in an unreliable way, influencing negatively its usability; and, in some cases, d) being industry-driven, hence exposing bias in information provided, for example towards particular types of treatment or intervention procedures.

Career Paths of Pathology Informatics Fellowship Alumni.

PubMed

Rudolf, Joseph W; Garcia, Christopher A; Hanna, Matthew G; Williams, Christopher L; Balis, Ulysses G; Pantanowitz, Liron; Tuthill, J Mark; Gilbertson, John R

2018-01-01

The alumni of today's Pathology Informatics and Clinical Informatics fellowships fill diverse roles in academia, large health systems, and industry. The evolving training tracks and curriculum of Pathology Informatics fellowships have been well documented. However, less attention has been given to the posttraining experiences of graduates from informatics training programs. Here, we examine the career paths of subspecialty fellowship-trained pathology informaticians. Alumni from four Pathology Informatics fellowship training programs were contacted for their voluntary participation in the study. We analyzed various components of training, and the subsequent career paths of Pathology Informatics fellowship alumni using data extracted from alumni provided curriculum vitae. Twenty-three out of twenty-seven alumni contacted contributed to the study. A majority had completed undergraduate study in science, technology, engineering, and math fields and combined track training in anatomic and clinical pathology. Approximately 30% (7/23) completed residency in a program with an in-house Pathology Informatics fellowship. Most completed additional fellowships (15/23) and many also completed advanced degrees (10/23). Common primary posttraining appointments included chief medical informatics officer (3/23), director of Pathology Informatics (10/23), informatics program director (2/23), and various roles in industry (3/23). Many alumni also provide clinical care in addition to their informatics roles (14/23). Pathology Informatics alumni serve on a variety of institutional committees, participate in national informatics organizations, contribute widely to scientific literature, and more than half (13/23) have obtained subspecialty certification in Clinical Informatics to date. Our analysis highlights several interesting phenomena related to the training and career trajectory of Pathology Informatics fellowship alumni. We note the long training track alumni complete in

Informatics Competencies for Nursing and Healthcare Leaders

PubMed Central

Westra, Bonnie L.; Delaney, Connie W.

2008-01-01

Historically, educational preparation did not address informatics competencies; thus managers, administrators, or executives may not be prepared to use or lead change in the use of health information technologies. A number of resources for informatics competencies exist, however, a comprehensive list addressing the unique knowledge and skills required in the role of a manager or administrator was not found. The purpose of this study was to develop informatics competencies for nursing leaders. A synthesis of the literature and a Delphi approach using three rounds of surveys with an expert panel resulted in identification of informatics competencies for nursing leaders that address computer skills, informatics knowledge, and informatics skills. PMID:18998803

Toward an Informatics Research Agenda

PubMed Central

Kaplan, Bonnie; Brennan, Patricia Flatley; Dowling, Alan F.; Friedman, Charles P.; Peel, Victor

2001-01-01

As we have advanced in medical informatics and created many impressive innovations, we also have learned that technologic developments are not sufficient to bring the value of computer and information technologies to health care systems. This paper proposes a model for improving how we develop and deploy information technology. The authors focus on trends in people, organizational, and social issues (POI/OSI), which are becoming more complex as both health care institutions and information technologies are changing rapidly. They outline key issues and suggest high-priority research areas. One dimension of the model concerns different organizational levels at which informatics applications are used. The other dimension draws on social science disciplines for their approaches to studying implications of POI/OSI in informatics. By drawing on a wide variety of research approaches and asking questions based in social science disciplines, the authors propose a research agenda for high-priority issues, so that the challenges they see ahead for informatics may be met better. PMID:11320068

Present and Future Trends in Consumer Health Informatics and Patient-Generated Health Data.

PubMed

Lai, A M; Hsueh, P-Y S; Choi, Y K; Austin, R R

2017-08-01

Objectives: Consumer Health Informatics (CHI) and the use of Patient-Generated Health Data (PGHD) are rapidly growing focus areas in healthcare. The objective of this paper is to briefly review the literature that has been published over the past few years and to provide a sense of where the field is going. Methods: We searched PubMed and the ACM Digital Library for articles published between 2014 and 2016 on the topics of CHI and PGHD. The results of the search were screened for relevance and categorized into a set of common themes. We discuss the major topics covered in these articles. Results: We retrieved 65 articles from our PubMed query and 32 articles from our ACM Digital Library query. After a review of titles, we were left with 47 articles to conduct our full article survey of the activities in CHI and PGHD. We have summarized these articles and placed them into major categories of activity. Within the domain of consumer health informatics, articles focused on mobile health and patient-generated health data comprise the majority of the articles published in recent years. Conclusions: Current evidence indicates that technological advancements and the widespread availability of affordable consumer-grade devices are fueling research into using PGHD for better care. As we observe a growing number of (pilot) developments using various mobile health technologies to collect PGHD, major gaps still exist in how to use the data by both patients and providers. Further research is needed to understand the impact of PGHD on clinical outcomes. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart.

Global eHealth, Social Business and Citizen Engagement: A Natural Convergence?

PubMed

Liaw, Siaw-Teng; Marcelo, Alvin; Narasimhan, Padmanesan; Ashraf, Md Mahfuz; Ray, Pradeep

2017-01-01

This paper draws on the vision, mission and experience with the WHO Collaborating Centre on eHealth (WHOCC-eHealth) and Yunus Social Business Health Hub (YSBHH) based at UNSW Australia, and the Asia electronic Health Information Network (AeHIN). Global eHealth aims to provide equitable access to ICT and health care, particularly to the poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged. Social business aims to solve social and economic problem. Its best known product is microcredit financial services for the poor which are small loans that enable them to "produce something, sell something, earn something to develop self-reliance and a life of dignity". Citizen engagement and community participation is integral to both constructs within the context of global partnerships for Integrated People-Centred Health Services (IPCHS) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The eHealth dimension is consumer heath informatics, social media, mHealth and the Internet of Things. The convergence is multidimensional, mutually beneficial and requires good governance and leadership.

Convergent Evolution of Health Information Management and Health Informatics

PubMed Central

Gibson, C. J.; Abrams, K.

2015-01-01

Summary Clearly defined boundaries are disappearing among the activities, sources, and uses of health care data and information managed by health information management (HIM) and health informatics (HI) professionals. Definitions of the professional domains and scopes of practice for HIM and HI are converging with the proliferation of information and communication technologies in health care settings. Convergence is changing both the roles that HIM and HI professionals serve in their organizations as well as the competencies necessary for training future professionals. Many of these changes suggest a blurring of roles and responsibilities with increasingly overlapping curricula, job descriptions, and research agendas. Blurred lines in a highly competitive market create confusion for students and employers. In this essay, we provide some perspective on the changing landscape and suggest a course for the future. First we review the evolving definitions of HIM and HI. We next compare the current domains and competencies, review the characteristics as well as the education and credentialing of both disciplines, and examine areas of convergence. Given the current state, we suggest a path forward to strengthen the contributions HIM and HI professionals and educators make to the evolving health care environment. PMID:25848421

Requirements for Realizing the Full Potential of Informatics in the Field of Health Care.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wittenstrom, John C.

1991-01-01

The paper proposes a zero concept, health-oriented approach to applying informatics to two health care problems: first, the lack of easily understood and used terminology linking health problems and interventions to the concept of "health"; and second, the lack of a unifying principle on which to base all aspects of health care. (DB)

Military research needs in biomedical informatics.

PubMed

Reifman, Jaques; Gilbert, Gary R; Fagan, Lawrence; Satava, Richard

2002-01-01

The 2001 U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) Biomedical Informatics Roadmap Meeting was devoted to developing a strategic plan in four focus areas: Hospital and Clinical Informatics, E-Health, Combat Health Informatics, and Bioinformatics and Biomedical Computation. The driving force of this Roadmap Meeting was the recent accelerated pace of change in biomedical informatics in which emerging technologies have the potential to affect significantly the Army research portfolio and investment strategy in these focus areas. The meeting was structured so that the first two days were devoted to presentations from experts in the field, including representatives from the three services, other government agencies, academia, and the private sector, and the morning of the last day was devoted to capturing specific biomedical informatics research needs in the four focus areas. This white paper summarizes the key findings and recommendations and should be a powerful tool for the crafting of future requests for proposals to help align USAMRMC new strategic research investments with new developments and emerging technologies.

Global Disease Detection-Achievements in Applied Public Health Research, Capacity Building, and Public Health Diplomacy, 2001-2016.

PubMed

Rao, Carol Y; Goryoka, Grace W; Henao, Olga L; Clarke, Kevin R; Salyer, Stephanie J; Montgomery, Joel M

2017-11-01

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has established 10 Global Disease Detection (GDD) Program regional centers around the world that serve as centers of excellence for public health research on emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. The core activities of the GDD Program focus on applied public health research, surveillance, laboratory, public health informatics, and technical capacity building. During 2015-2016, program staff conducted 205 discrete projects on a range of topics, including acute respiratory illnesses, health systems strengthening, infectious diseases at the human-animal interface, and emerging infectious diseases. Projects incorporated multiple core activities, with technical capacity building being most prevalent. Collaborating with host countries to implement such projects promotes public health diplomacy. The GDD Program continues to work with countries to strengthen core capacities so that emerging diseases can be detected and stopped faster and closer to the source, thereby enhancing global health security.

METEOR: An Enterprise Health Informatics Environment to Support Evidence-Based Medicine.

PubMed

Puppala, Mamta; He, Tiancheng; Chen, Shenyi; Ogunti, Richard; Yu, Xiaohui; Li, Fuhai; Jackson, Robert; Wong, Stephen T C

2015-12-01

The aim of this paper is to propose the design and implementation of next-generation enterprise analytics platform developed at the Houston Methodist Hospital (HMH) system to meet the market and regulatory needs of the healthcare industry. For this goal, we developed an integrated clinical informatics environment, i.e., Methodist environment for translational enhancement and outcomes research (METEOR). The framework of METEOR consists of two components: the enterprise data warehouse (EDW) and a software intelligence and analytics (SIA) layer for enabling a wide range of clinical decision support systems that can be used directly by outcomes researchers and clinical investigators to facilitate data access for the purposes of hypothesis testing, cohort identification, data mining, risk prediction, and clinical research training. Data and usability analysis were performed on METEOR components as a preliminary evaluation, which successfully demonstrated that METEOR addresses significant niches in the clinical informatics area, and provides a powerful means for data integration and efficient access in supporting clinical and translational research. METEOR EDW and informatics applications improved outcomes, enabled coordinated care, and support health analytics and clinical research at HMH. The twin pressures of cost containment in the healthcare market and new federal regulations and policies have led to the prioritization of the meaningful use of electronic health records in the United States. EDW and SIA layers on top of EDW are becoming an essential strategic tool to healthcare institutions and integrated delivery networks in order to support evidence-based medicine at the enterprise level.

Earth Science Informatics - Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramapriyan, H. K.

2015-01-01

Over the last 10-15 years, significant advances have been made in information management, there are an increasing number of individuals entering the field of information management as it applies to Geoscience and Remote Sensing data, and the field of informatics has come to its own. Informatics is the science and technology of applying computers and computational methods to the systematic analysis, management, interchange, and representation of science data, information, and knowledge. Informatics also includes the use of computers and computational methods to support decision making and applications. Earth Science Informatics (ESI, a.k.a. geoinformatics) is the application of informatics in the Earth science domain. ESI is a rapidly developing discipline integrating computer science, information science, and Earth science. Major national and international research and infrastructure projects in ESI have been carried out or are on-going. Notable among these are: the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), the European Commissions INSPIRE, the U.S. NSDI and Geospatial One-Stop, the NASA EOSDIS, and the NSF DataONE, EarthCube and Cyberinfrastructure for Geoinformatics. More than 18 departments and agencies in the U.S. federal government have been active in Earth science informatics. All major space agencies in the world, have been involved in ESI research and application activities. In the United States, the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), whose membership includes nearly 150 organizations (government, academic and commercial) dedicated to managing, delivering and applying Earth science data, has been working on many ESI topics since 1998. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS)s Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS) has been actively coordinating the ESI activities among the space agencies. Remote Sensing; Earth Science Informatics, Data Systems; Data Services; Metadata

Women's Self-Identified Sources of Student Support in a Master's-Level Health Informatics Database Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feinberg, Daniel A.

2017-01-01

This study examined the supports that female students sought out and found of value in an online database design course in a health informatics master's program. A target outcome was to help inform the practice of faculty and administrators in similar programs. Health informatics is a growing field that has faced shortages of qualified workers who…

Research Strategies for Biomedical and Health Informatics. Some Thought-provoking and Critical Proposals to Encourage Scientific Debate on the Nature of Good Research in Medical Informatics.

PubMed

Haux, Reinhold; Kulikowski, Casimir A; Bakken, Suzanne; de Lusignan, Simon; Kimura, Michio; Koch, Sabine; Mantas, John; Maojo, Victor; Marschollek, Michael; Martin-Sanchez, Fernando; Moen, Anne; Park, Hyeoun-Ae; Sarkar, Indra N; Leong, Tze Yun; McCray, Alexa T

2017-01-25

Medical informatics, or biomedical and health informatics (BMHI), has become an established scientific discipline. In all such disciplines there is a certain inertia to persist in focusing on well-established research areas and to hold on to well-known research methodologies rather than adopting new ones, which may be more appropriate. To search for answers to the following questions: What are research fields in informatics, which are not being currently adequately addressed, and which methodological approaches might be insufficiently used? Do we know about reasons? What could be consequences of change for research and for education? Outstanding informatics scientists were invited to three panel sessions on this topic in leading international conferences (MIE 2015, Medinfo 2015, HEC 2016) in order to get their answers to these questions. A variety of themes emerged in the set of answers provided by the panellists. Some panellists took the theoretical foundations of the field for granted, while several questioned whether the field was actually grounded in a strong theoretical foundation. Panellists proposed a range of suggestions for new or improved approaches, methodologies, and techniques to enhance the BMHI research agenda. The field of BMHI is on the one hand maturing as an academic community and intellectual endeavour. On the other hand vendor-supplied solutions may be too readily and uncritically accepted in health care practice. There is a high chance that BMHI will continue to flourish as an important discipline; its innovative interventions might then reach the original objectives of advancing science and improving health care outcomes.

The internal challenges of medical informatics.

PubMed

Gell, G

1997-03-01

Haux's [7] basic assumption that the object of medical informatics is: "... to assure and to improve the quality of healthcare as well as the quality of research and education in medicine and in the health sciences ..." is taken as a starting point to discuss the three main topics: What is the meaning of medical informatics (i.e. what should be the main activities of medical informatics to bring maximum benefit to medicine)? What are the achievements and failures of medical informatics today (again considering the impact on the quality of healthcare)? What are the main challenges? Concerning the definition of medical informatics it is argued that one should not hide the link to basic informatics and, for that matter to computers, completely behind abstract definitions. After an analysis of the purposes of the definition of a discipline, a differentiated definition of the scope of medical informatics, rather general when concerning the field of scientific interest, more focused when concerning the practical (constructive) applications, is proposed. Contrasting Haux's chapter on achievements of medical informatics we concentrate on and analyse non fulfilled promises of medical informatics to derive lessons for the future and to propose 'generic' (or core) tasks of medical informatics to meet the challenges of the future. A set of 'internal challenges' of medical informatics to change priorities and attitudes within the discipline is put forward to enable medical informatics to meet the 'external challenges' listed by Haux.

Introduction to CATCH-IT Reports: Critically Appraised Topics in Communication, Health Informatics, and Technology

PubMed Central

Norman, Cameron

2004-01-01

EHealth has developed largely from an interdisciplinary framework and, as such, does not have a “home” discipline. The absence of this home discipline has allowed eHealth research to be published widely in journals ranging from the medical sciences, to engineering, to social science or to business and policy studies. The result of this fragmented, decentralized literature base is that researchers are not always aware of important papers published in other areas and journals. With this issue the Journal of Medical Internet Research is inaugurating a new article category which we call “CATCH-IT Reports” (Critically Appraised Topics in Communication, Health Informatics, and Technology). We hope these reports will draw attention to important work published in other (sometimes obscure) journals, provide a platform for discussion around results and methodological issues in eHealth research, and help to develop a framework for evidence-based eHealth. CATCH-IT Reports arise from “journal club” - like sessions founded in February 2003 at the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation. We invite other research institutions to create similar journal clubs and to write up and submit to this journal critiques in the form of CATCH-IT Reports.

Nursing informatics competencies: bibliometric analysis.

PubMed

Kokol, Peter; Blažun, Helena; Vošner, Janez; Saranto, Kaija

2014-01-01

Information and communication technology is developing rapidly and it is incorporated in many health care processes, but in spite of that fact we can still notice that nursing informatics competencies had received limited attention in basic nursing education curricula in Europe and especially in Eastern European countries. The purpose of the present paper is to present the results of a bibliometric analysis of the nursing informatics competencies scientific literature production. We applied the bibliometrics analysis to the corpus of 332 papers found in SCOPUS, related to nursing informatics competencies. The results showed that there is a positive trend in the number of published papers per year, indicating the increased research interest in nursing informatics competencies. Despite the fact that the first paper was published in Denmark, the most prolific country regarding the research in nursing informatics competencies is United States as are their institutions and authors.

The nursing informatics workforce: who are they and what do they do?

PubMed

Murphy, Judy

2011-01-01

Nursing informatics has evolved into an integral part of health care delivery and a differentiating factor in the selection, implementation, and evaluation of health IT that supports safe, high-quality, patient-centric care. New nursing informatics workforce data reveal changing dynamics in clinical experience, job responsibilities, applications, barriers to success, information, and compensation and benefits. In addition to the more traditional informatics nurse role, a new position has begun to emerge in the health care C-suite with the introduction of the chief nursing informatics officer (CNIO). The CNIO is the senior informatics nurse guiding the implementation and optimization of HIT systems for an organization. With their fused clinical and informatics background, informatics nurses and CNIOs are uniquely positioned to help with "meaningful use" initiatives which are so important to changing the face of health care in the United States.

The Emerging Role of the Chief Research Informatics Officer in Academic Health Centers.

PubMed

Sanchez-Pinto, L Nelson; Mosa, Abu S M; Fultz-Hollis, Kate; Tachinardi, Umberto; Barnett, William K; Embi, Peter J

2017-08-16

The role of the Chief Research Informatics Officer (CRIO) is emerging in academic health centers to address the challenges clinical researchers face in the increasingly digitalized, data-intensive healthcare system. Most current CRIOs are the first officers in their institutions to hold that role. To date there is very little published information about this role and the individuals who serve it. To increase our understanding of the CRIO role, the leaders who serve it, and the factors associated with their success in their organizations. The Clinical Research Informatics Working Group of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) conducted a national survey of CRIOs in the United States and convened an expert panel of CRIOs to discuss their experience during the 2016 AMIA Annual Symposium. CRIOs come from diverse academic backgrounds. Most have advance training and extensive experience in biomedical informatics but the majority have been CRIOs for less than three years. CRIOs identify funding, data governance, and advancing data analytics as their major challenges. CRIOs play an important role in helping shape the future of clinical research, innovation, and data analytics in healthcare in their organizations. They share many of the same challenges and see the same opportunities for the future of the field. Better understanding the background and experience of current CRIOs can help define and develop the role in other organizations and enhance their influence in the field of research informatics.

Information science for the future: an innovative nursing informatics curriculum.

PubMed

Travis, L; Flatley Brennan, P

1998-04-01

Health care is increasingly driven by information, and consequently, patient care will demand effective management of information. The report of the Priority Expert Panel E: Nursing Informatics and Enhancing Clinical Care Through Nursing Informatics challenges faculty to produce baccalaureate graduates who use information technologies to improve the patient care process and change health care. The challenge is to construct an evolving nursing informatics curriculum to provide nursing professionals with the foundation for affecting health care delivery. This article discusses the design, implementation, and evaluation of an innovative nursing informatics curriculum incorporated into a baccalaureate nursing program. The basic components of the curriculum framework are information, technology, and clinical care process. The presented integrated curriculum is effective in familiarizing students with informatics and encouraging them to think critically about using informatics in practice. The two groups of students who completed the four-course sequence will be discussed.

Earth Science Informatics - Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramapriyan, H. K.

2017-01-01

Over the last 10-15 years, significant advances have been made in information management, there are an increasing number of individuals entering the field of information management as it applies to Geoscience and Remote Sensing data, and the field of informatics has come to its own. Informatics is the science and technology of applying computers and computational methods to the systematic analysis, management, interchange, and representation of science data, information, and knowledge. Informatics also includes the use of computers and computational methods to support decision making and applications. Earth Science Informatics (ESI, a.k.a. geoinformatics) is the application of informatics in the Earth science domain. ESI is a rapidly developing discipline integrating computer science, information science, and Earth science. Major national and international research and infrastructure projects in ESI have been carried out or are on-going. Notable among these are: the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), the European Commissions INSPIRE, the U.S. NSDI and Geospatial One-Stop, the NASA EOSDIS, and the NSF DataONE, EarthCube and Cyberinfrastructure for Geoinformatics. More than 18 departments and agencies in the U.S. federal government have been active in Earth science informatics. All major space agencies in the world, have been involved in ESI research and application activities. In the United States, the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), whose membership includes over 180 organizations (government, academic and commercial) dedicated to managing, delivering and applying Earth science data, has been working on many ESI topics since 1998. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS)s Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS) has been actively coordinating the ESI activities among the space agencies.

Integrating Governance of Research Informatics and Health Care IT Across an Enterprise: Experiences from the Trenches.

PubMed

Embi, Peter J; Tachinardi, Umberto; Lussier, Yves; Starren, Justin; Silverstein, Jonathan

2013-01-01

Advances in health information technology and biomedical informatics have laid the groundwork for significant improvements in healthcare and biomedical research. For instance, Electronic Health Records can help improve the delivery of evidence-based care, enhance quality, and contribute to discoveries and evidence generation. Despite this promise, there are many challenges to achieving the vision and missions of our healthcare and research enterprises. Given the challenges inherent in doing so, institutions are increasingly moving to establish dedicated leadership and governance models charged with designing, deploying and leveraging various information resources to advance research and advanced care activities at AHCs. Some institutions have even created a new leadership position to oversee such activities, such as the Chief Research Information Officer. This panel will include research informatics leaders discussing their experiences from the proverbial trenches as they work to operationalize such cross-mission governance models. Panelists will start by providing an overview their respective positions and environments, discuss their experiences, and share lessons learned through their work at the intersection of clinical and translational research informatics and Health IT.

Medical Informatics Education & Research in Greece.

PubMed

Chouvarda, I; Maglaveras, N

2015-08-13

This paper aims to present an overview of the medical informatics landscape in Greece, to describe the Greek ehealth background and to highlight the main education and research axes in medical informatics, along with activities, achievements and pitfalls. With respect to research and education, formal and informal sources were investigated and information was collected and presented in a qualitative manner, including also quantitative indicators when possible. Greece has adopted and applied medical informatics education in various ways, including undergraduate courses in health sciences schools as well as multidisciplinary postgraduate courses. There is a continuous research effort, and large participation in EU-wide initiatives, in all the spectrum of medical informatics research, with notable scientific contributions, although technology maturation is not without barriers. Wide-scale deployment of eHealth is anticipated in the healthcare system in the near future. While ePrescription deployment has been an important step, ICT for integrated care and telehealth have a lot of room for further deployment. Greece is a valuable contributor in the European medical informatics arena, and has the potential to offer more as long as the barriers of research and innovation fragmentation are addressed and alleviated.

Scientific papers for health informatics.

PubMed

Pereira, Samáris Ramiro; Duarte, Jacy Marcondes; Bandiera-Paiva, Paulo

2013-01-01

From the hypothesis that the development of scientific papers, mainly in interdisciplinary areas such as Health Informatics, may bring difficulties to the author, as had its communicative efficacy decreased or compromising their approval for publication; we aim to make considerations on the main items to good players making this kind of text. The scientific writing has peculiarities that must be taken into consideration when it writes: general characteristics, such as simplicity and objectivity, and characteristics of each area of knowledge, such as terminology, formatting and standardization. The research methodology adopted is bibliographical. The information was based on literature review and the authors' experience, teachers and assessors of scientific methodology in peer review publications in the area. As a result, we designed a checklist of items to be checked before submission of a paper to a scientific publication vehicle in order to contribute to the promotion of research, facilitating the publication and increase its capacity in this important area of knowledge.

Evaluating distance learning in health informatics education.

PubMed

Russell, Barbara L; Barefield, Amanda C; Turnbull, Diane; Leibach, Elizabeth; Pretlow, Lester

2008-04-24

The purpose of this study was to compare academic performance between distance-learning and on-campus health informatics students. A quantitative causal-comparative research design was utilized, and academic performance was measured by final GPA scores and Registered Health Information Administrator certification exam scores. Differences in previous academic performance between the two groups were also determined by comparing overall admission GPA and math/science admission GPA. The researchers found no difference in academic performance between the two groups when final GPA scores and total certification scores were compared. However, there were statistically significant differences between the two groups in 4 of the 17 sub-domains of the certification examination, with the on-campus students scoring slightly higher than the distance students. Correlation studies were also performed, and the researchers found significant correlations between overall admission GPA, math/science admission GPA, final GPA, and certification scores.

Treating the Healthcare Workforce Crisis: A Prescription for a Health Informatics Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, S. Matt; Pardue, J. Harold; Longenecker, Herbert E., Jr.; Barnett, H. Les; Landry, Jeffrey P.

2012-01-01

A serious need exists for information systems workers who have an understanding of the healthcare environment. Traditional information systems degree programs do not adequately prepare students to enter the healthcare environment. In this paper, we propose a curriculum for a baccalaureate health informatics degree that combines the technical and…

Earth Science Informatics - Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramapriyan, H. K.

2017-01-01

Over the last 10-15 years, significant advances have been made in information management, there are an increasing number of individuals entering the field of information management as it applies to Geoscience and Remote Sensing data, and the field of informatics has come to its own. Informatics is the science and technology of applying computers and computational methods to the systematic analysis, management, interchange, and representation of science data, information, and knowledge. Informatics also includes the use of computers and computational methods to support decision making and applications. Earth Science Informatics (ESI, a.k.a. geoinformatics) is the application of informatics in the Earth science domain. ESI is a rapidly developing discipline integrating computer science, information science, and Earth science. Major national and international research and infrastructure projects in ESI have been carried out or are on-going. Notable among these are: the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), the European Commissions INSPIRE, the U.S. NSDI and Geospatial One-Stop, the NASA EOSDIS, and the NSF DataONE, EarthCube and Cyberinfrastructure for Geoinformatics. More than 18 departments and agencies in the U.S. federal government have been active in Earth science informatics. All major space agencies in the world, have been involved in ESI research and application activities. In the United States, the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), whose membership includes over 180 organizations (government, academic and commercial) dedicated to managing, delivering and applying Earth science data, has been working on many ESI topics since 1998. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS)s Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS) has been actively coordinating the ESI activities among the space agencies.The talk will present an overview of current efforts in ESI, the role members of IEEE GRSS play, and discuss

On Contributing to the Progress of Medical Informatics as Publisher.

PubMed

Haux, R; Geissbuhler, A; Holmes, J; Jaulent, M-C; Koch, S; Kulikowski, C A; Lehmann, C U; McCray, A T; Séroussi, B; Soualmia, L F; van Bemmel, J H

2017-08-01

May 1st, 2017, will mark Dieter Bergemann's 80th birthday. As Chief Executive Officer and Owner of Schattauer Publishers from 1983 to 2016, the biomedical and health informatics community owes him a great debt of gratitude. The past and present editors of Methods of Information in Medicine, the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics, and Applied Clinical Informatics want to honour and thank Dieter Bergemann by providing a brief biography that emphasizes his contributions, by reviewing his critical role as an exceptionally supportive publisher for Schattauer's three biomedical and health informatics periodicals, and by sharing some personal anecdotes. Over the past 40 years, Dieter Bergemann has been an influential, if behind-the-scenes, driving force in biomedical and health informatics publications, helping to ensure success in the dissemination of our field's research and practice. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart.

Informatics competencies for nurse leaders: protocol for a scoping review.

PubMed

Kassam, Iman; Nagle, Lynn; Strudwick, Gillian

2017-12-14

Globally, health information technologies are now being used by nurses in a variety of settings. However, nurse leaders often do not have the necessary strategic and tactical informatics competencies to adequately ensure their effective adoption and use. Although informatics competencies and competency frameworks have been identified and developed, to date there has not been review or consolidation of the work completed in this area. In order to address this gap, a scoping review is being conducted. The objectives of this scoping review are to: (1) identify informatics competencies of relevance to nurse leaders, (2) identify frameworks or theories that have been used to develop informatics competencies for nurse leaders, (3) identify instruments used to assess the informatics competencies of nurse leaders and (4) examine the psychometric properties of identified instruments. Using the Arksey and O'Malley five-step framework, a literature review will be conducted using a scoping review methodology. The search will encompass academic and grey literature and include two primary databases and five secondary databases. Identified studies and documents will be independently screened for eligibility by two reviewers. Data from the studies and documents will be extracted and compiled into a chart. Qualitative data will be subject to a thematic analysis and descriptive statistics applied to the quantitative data. Ethical approval was not required for this study. Results will be used to inform a future study designed to validate an instrument used to evaluate informatics competencies for nurse leaders within a Canadian context. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Medical informatics education needs information system practicums in health care settings--experiences and lessons learned from 32 practicums at four universities in two countries.

PubMed

Haux, R; Ammenwerth, E; Häber, A; Hübner-Bloder, G; Knaup-Gregori, P; Lechleitner, G; Leiner, F; Weber, R; Winter, A; Wolff, A C

2006-01-01

To report about the themes and about experiences with practicums in the management of information systems in health care settings (health information management) for medical informatics students. We first summarize the topics of the health information management practicums/projects that the authors organized between 1990 and 2003 for the medical informatics programs at Heidelberg/Heilbronn, Germany, UMIT, Austria, as well as for the informatics program at the University of Leipzig, Germany. Experiences and lessons learned, obtained from the faculty that organized the practicums in the past 14 years, are reported. Thirty (of 32) health information management practicums focused on the analysis of health information systems. These took place inside university medical centers. Although the practicums were time-intensive and required intensively tutoring students with regard to health information management and project management, feedback from the students and graduates was mainly positive. It is clearly recommended that students specializing in medical informatics need to be confronted with real-world problems of health information systems during their studies.

Medical Informatics Education & Research in Greece

PubMed Central

Chouvarda, I.

2015-01-01

Summary Objectives This paper aims to present an overview of the medical informatics landscape in Greece, to describe the Greek ehealth background and to highlight the main education and research axes in medical informatics, along with activities, achievements and pitfalls. Methods With respect to research and education, formal and informal sources were investigated and information was collected and presented in a qualitative manner, including also quantitative indicators when possible. Results Greece has adopted and applied medical informatics education in various ways, including undergraduate courses in health sciences schools as well as multidisciplinary postgraduate courses. There is a continuous research effort, and large participation in EU-wide initiatives, in all the spectrum of medical informatics research, with notable scientific contributions, although technology maturation is not without barriers. Wide-scale deployment of eHealth is anticipated in the healthcare system in the near future. While ePrescription deployment has been an important step, ICT for integrated care and telehealth have a lot of room for further deployment. Conclusions Greece is a valuable contributor in the European medical informatics arena, and has the potential to offer more as long as the barriers of research and innovation fragmentation are addressed and alleviated. PMID:26123910

An analysis of application of health informatics in Traditional Medicine: A review of four Traditional Medicine Systems.

PubMed

Raja Ikram, Raja Rina; Abd Ghani, Mohd Khanapi; Abdullah, Noraswaliza

2015-11-01

This paper shall first investigate the informatics areas and applications of the four Traditional Medicine systems - Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Ayurveda, Traditional Arabic and Islamic Medicine and Traditional Malay Medicine. Then, this paper shall examine the national informatics infrastructure initiatives in the four respective countries that support the Traditional Medicine systems. Challenges of implementing informatics in Traditional Medicine Systems shall also be discussed. The literature was sourced from four databases: Ebsco Host, IEEE Explore, Proquest and Google scholar. The search term used was "Traditional Medicine", "informatics", "informatics infrastructure", "traditional Chinese medicine", "Ayurveda", "traditional Arabic and Islamic medicine", and "traditional malay medicine". A combination of the search terms above was also executed to enhance the searching process. A search was also conducted in Google to identify miscellaneous books, publications, and organization websites using the same terms. Amongst major advancements in TCM and Ayurveda are bioinformatics, development of Traditional Medicine databases for decision system support, data mining and image processing. Traditional Chinese Medicine differentiates itself from other Traditional Medicine systems with documented ISO Standards to support the standardization of TCM. Informatics applications in Traditional Arabic and Islamic Medicine are mostly ehealth applications that focus more on spiritual healing, Islamic obligations and prophetic traditions. Literature regarding development of health informatics to support Traditional Malay Medicine is still insufficient. Major informatics infrastructure that is common in China and India are automated insurance payment systems for Traditional Medicine treatment. National informatics infrastructure in Middle East and Malaysia mainly cater for modern medicine. Other infrastructure such as telemedicine and hospital information systems focus its

Bridging informatics and implementation science: evaluating a framework to assess electronic health record implementations in community settings.

PubMed

Richardson, Joshua E; Abramson, Erika L; Pfoh, Elizabeth R; Kaushal, Rainu

2012-01-01

Effective electronic health record (EHR) implementations in community settings are critical to promoting safe and reliable EHR use as well as mitigating provider dissatisfaction that often results. The implementation challenge is compounded given the scale and scope of EHR installations that are occurring and will continue to occur over the next five years. However, when compared to EHR evaluations relatively few biomedical informatics researchers have published on evaluating EHR implementations. Fewer still have evaluated EHR implementations in community settings. We report on the methods we used to achieve a novel application of an implementation science framework in informatics to qualitatively evaluate community-based EHR implementations. We briefly provide an overview of the implementation science framework, our methods for adapting it to informatics, the effects the framework had on our qualitative methods of inquiry and analysis, and discuss its potential value for informatics research.

Design and Evaluation of a Health-Focused Personal Informatics Application with Support for Generalized Goal Management

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Medynskiy, Yevgeniy

2012-01-01

The practice of health self-management offers behavioral and problem-solving strategies that can effectively promote responsibility for one's own wellbeing, improve one's health outcomes, and decrease the cost of health services. Personal informatics applications support health self-management by allowing their users to easily track…

Patient Outcomes as Transformative Mechanisms to Bring Health Information Technology Industry and Research Informatics Closer Together.

PubMed

Krive, Jacob

2015-01-01

Despite the fast pace of recent innovation within the health information technology and research informatics domains, there remains a large gap between research and academia, while interest in translating research innovations into implementations in the patient care settings is lacking. This is due to absence of common outcomes and performance measurement targets, with health information technology industry employing financial and operational measures and academia focusing on patient outcome concerns. The paper introduces methodology for and roadmap to introduction of common objectives as a way to encourage better collaboration between industry and academia using patient outcomes as a composite measure of demonstrated success from health information systems investments. Along the way, the concept of economics of health informatics, or "infonomics," is introduced to define a new way of mapping future technology investments in accordance with projected clinical impact.

Core Content for the Subspecialty of Clinical Informatics

PubMed Central

Gardner, Reed M.; Overhage, J. Marc; Steen, Elaine B.; Munger, Benson S.; Holmes, John H.; Williamson, Jeffrey J.; Detmer, Don E.

2009-01-01

The Core Content for Clinical Informatics defines the boundaries of the discipline and informs the Program Requirements for Fellowship Education in Clinical Informatics. The Core Content includes four major categories: fundamentals, clinical decision making and care process improvement, health information systems, and leadership and management of change. The AMIA Board of Directors approved the Core Content for Clinical Informatics in November 2008. PMID:19074296

Informatics and Technology in Resident Education.

PubMed

Niehaus, William

2017-05-01

Biomedical or clinical informatics is the transdisciplinary field that studies and develops effective uses of biomedical data, information technology innovations, and medical knowledge for scientific inquiry, problem solving, and decision making, with an emphasis on improving human health. Given the ongoing advances in information technology, the field of informatics is becoming important to clinical practice and to residency education. This article will discuss how informatics is specifically relevant to residency education and the different ways to incorporate informatics into residency education, and will highlight applications of current technology in the context of residency education. How informatics can optimize communication for residents, promote information technology use, refine documentation techniques, reduce medical errors, and improve clinical decision making will be reviewed. It is hoped that this article will increase faculty and trainees' knowledge of the field of informatics, awareness of available technology, and will assist practitioners to maximize their ability to provide quality care to their patients. This article will also introduce the idea of incorporating informatics specialists into residency programs to help practitioners deliver more evidenced-based care and to further improve their efficiency. Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Multi-dimensional knowledge translation: enabling health informatics capacity audits using patient journey models.

PubMed

Catley, Christina; McGregor, Carolyn; Percival, Jennifer; Curry, Joanne; James, Andrew

2008-01-01

This paper presents a multi-dimensional approach to knowledge translation, enabling results obtained from a survey evaluating the uptake of Information Technology within Neonatal Intensive Care Units to be translated into knowledge, in the form of health informatics capacity audits. Survey data, having multiple roles, patient care scenarios, levels, and hospitals, is translated using a structured data modeling approach, into patient journey models. The data model is defined such that users can develop queries to generate patient journey models based on a pre-defined Patient Journey Model architecture (PaJMa). PaJMa models are then analyzed to build capacity audits. Capacity audits offer a sophisticated view of health informatics usage, providing not only details of what IT solutions a hospital utilizes, but also answering the questions: when, how and why, by determining when the IT solutions are integrated into the patient journey, how they support the patient information flow, and why they improve the patient journey.

Social media and patient health outcomes. Findings from the yearbook 2014 section on consumer health informatics.

PubMed

Staccini, P; Douali, N

2014-08-15

To provide a review of the current excellent research published in the field of Consumer Health Informatics. We searched MEDLINE® and WEB OF SCIENCE® databases for papers published in 2013 in relation with Consumer Health Informatics. The authors identified 16 candidate best papers, which were then reviewed by four reviewers. Five out of the 16 candidate papers were selected as best papers. One paper presents the key features of a system to automate the collection of web-based social media content for subsequent semantic annotation. This paper emphasizes the importance of mining social media to collect novel data from which new findings in drug abuse research were uncovered. The second paper presents a practical method to predict how a community structure would impact the spreading of information within the community. The third paper presents a method for improving the quality of online health communities. The fourth presents a new social network to allow the monitoring of the evolution of individuals' health status and diagnostic deficiencies, difficulties or barriers in rehabilitation. The last paper reports on teenage patients' perception on privacy and social media. Selected papers not only show the value of using social media in the medical field but how to use these media to detect emergent diseases or risks, inform patients, promote disease prevention, and follow patients' opinion on healthcare resources.

Combining medical informatics and bioinformatics toward tools for personalized medicine.

PubMed

Sarachan, B D; Simmons, M K; Subramanian, P; Temkin, J M

2003-01-01

Key bioinformatics and medical informatics research areas need to be identified to advance knowledge and understanding of disease risk factors and molecular disease pathology in the 21 st century toward new diagnoses, prognoses, and treatments. Three high-impact informatics areas are identified: predictive medicine (to identify significant correlations within clinical data using statistical and artificial intelligence methods), along with pathway informatics and cellular simulations (that combine biological knowledge with advanced informatics to elucidate molecular disease pathology). Initial predictive models have been developed for a pilot study in Huntington's disease. An initial bioinformatics platform has been developed for the reconstruction and analysis of pathways, and work has begun on pathway simulation. A bioinformatics research program has been established at GE Global Research Center as an important technology toward next generation medical diagnostics. We anticipate that 21 st century medical research will be a combination of informatics tools with traditional biology wet lab research, and that this will translate to increased use of informatics techniques in the clinic.

Consumer Health Informatics: The Application of ICT in Improving Patient-Provider Partnership for a Better Health Care.

PubMed

Abaidoo, Benjamin; Larweh, Benjamin Teye

2014-01-01

There is a growing interest concerning the potential of ICT solutions that are customized to consumers. This emerging discipline referred to as consumer health informatics (CHI) plays a major role in providing information to patients and the public, and facilitates the promotion of self-management. The concept of CHI has emerged out of the desire of most patients to shoulder responsibilities regarding their health and a growing desire of health practitioners to fully appreciate the potential of the patient. To describe the role of ICT in improving the patient-provider partnership in consumer health informatics. Systematic reviewing of literature, identification of reference sources and formulation of search strategies and manual search regarding the significance of developed CHI applications in healthcare delivery. New consumer health IT applications have been developed to be used on a variety of different platforms, including the Web, messaging systems, PDAs, and cell phones. These applications assists patients with self-management through reminders and prompts, delivery of real-time data on a patient's health condition to patients and providers, web-based communication and personal electronic health information. New tools are being developed for the purposes of providing information to patients and the public which has enhanced decision making in health matters and an avenue for clinicians and consumers to exchange health information for personal and public use. This calls for corroboration among healthcare organizations, governments and the ICT industry to develop new research and IT innovations which are tailored to the health needs of the consumer.

Consumer Health Informatics: The Application of ICT in Improving Patient-Provider Partnership for a Better Health Care

PubMed Central

Larweh, Benjamin Teye

2014-01-01

Background There is a growing interest concerning the potential of ICT solutions that are customized to consumers. This emerging discipline referred to as consumer health informatics (CHI) plays a major role in providing information to patients and the public, and facilitates the promotion of self-management. The concept of CHI has emerged out of the desire of most patients to shoulder responsibilities regarding their health and a growing desire of health practitioners to fully appreciate the potential of the patient. Aim To describe the role of ICT in improving the patient-provider partnership in consumer health informatics. Methods Systematic reviewing of literature, identification of reference sources and formulation of search strategies and manual search regarding the significance of developed CHI applications in healthcare delivery. Results New consumer health IT applications have been developed to be used on a variety of different platforms, including the Web, messaging systems, PDAs, and cell phones. These applications assists patients with self-management through reminders and prompts, delivery of real-time data on a patient’s health condition to patients and providers, web-based communication and personal electronic health information. Conclusion New tools are being developed for the purposes of providing information to patients and the public which has enhanced decision making in health matters and an avenue for clinicians and consumers to exchange health information for personal and public use. This calls for corroboration among healthcare organizations, governments and the ICT industry to develop new research and IT innovations which are tailored to the health needs of the consumer. PMID:25422724

Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of Health Informatics Masters Program at KSAU-HS University, Saudi Arabia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Majid, Altuwaijri

2007-01-01

The Saudi health sector has witnessed a significant progress in recent decades with some Saudi hospitals receiving international recognition. However, this progress has not been accompanied by the same advancement in the health informatics field whose applications have become a necessity for hospitals in order to achieve important objectives such…

Comprehensive Environmental Informatics System (CEIS) Integrating Crew and Vehicle Environmental Health

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nall, Mark E.

2006-01-01

Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) systems have been pursued as highly integrated systems that include smart sensors, diagnostic and prognostics software for assessments of real-time and life-cycle vehicle health information. Inclusive to such a system is the requirement to monitor the environmental health within the vehicle and the occupants of the vehicle. In this regard an enterprise approach to informatics is used to develop a methodology entitled, Comprehensive Environmental Informatics System (CEIS). The hardware and software technologies integrated into this system will be embedded in the vehicle subsystems, and maintenance operations, to provide both real-time and life-cycle health information of the environment within the vehicle cabin and of its occupants. This comprehensive information database will enable informed decision making and logistics management. One key element of the CEIS is interoperability for data acquisition and archive between environment and human system monitoring. With comprehensive components the data acquired in this system will use model based reasoning systems for subsystem and system level managers, advanced on-board and ground-based mission and maintenance planners to assess system functionality. Knowledge databases of the vehicle health state will be continuously updated and reported for critical failure modes, and routinely updated and reported for life cycle condition trending. Sufficient intelligence, including evidence-based engineering practices which are analogous to evidencebased medicine practices, will be included in the CEIS to result in more rapid recognition of off-nominal operation to enable quicker corrective actions. This will result from better information (rather than just data) for improved crew/operator situational awareness, which will produce significant vehicle and crew safety improvements, as well as increasing the chance for mission success, future mission planning as well as training. Other

The diversity and disparity in biomedical informatics (DDBI) workshop.

PubMed

Southerland, William M; Swamidass, S Joshua; Payne, Philip R O; Wiley, Laura; Williams-DeVane, ClarLynda

2018-01-01

The Diversity and Disparity in Biomedical Informatics (DDBI) workshop will be focused on complementary and critical issues concerned with enhancing diversity in the informatics workforce as well as diversity in patient cohorts. According to the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) at the NIH, diversity refers to the inclusion of the following traditionally underrepresented groups: African Americans/Blacks, Asians (>30 countries), American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Latino or Hispanic (20 countries). Gender, culture, and socioeconomic status are also important dimensions of diversity, which may define some underrepresented groups. The under-representation of specific groups in both the biomedical informatics workforce as well as in the patient-derived data that is being used for research purposes has contributed to an ongoing disparity; these groups have not experienced equity in contributing to or benefiting from advancements in informatics research. This workshop will highlight innovative efforts to increase the pool of minority informaticians and discuss examples of informatics research that addresses the health concerns that impact minority populations. This workshop topics will provide insight into overcoming pipeline issues in the development of minority informaticians while emphasizing the importance of minority participation in health related research. The DDBI workshop will occur in two parts. Part I will discuss specific minority health & health disparities research topics and Part II will cover discussions related to overcoming pipeline issues in the training of minority informaticians.

Behavioral Informatics and Computational Modeling in Support of Proactive Health Management and Care

PubMed Central

Jimison, Holly B.; Korhonen, Ilkka; Gordon, Christine M.; Saranummi, Niilo

2016-01-01

Health-related behaviors are among the most significant determinants of health and quality of life. Improving health behavior is an effective way to enhance health outcomes and mitigate the escalating challenges arising from an increasingly aging population and the proliferation of chronic diseases. Although it has been difficult to obtain lasting improvements in health behaviors on a wide scale, advances at the intersection of technology and behavioral science may provide the tools to address this challenge. In this paper, we describe a vision and an approach to improve health behavior interventions using the tools of behavioral informatics, an emerging transdisciplinary research domain based on system-theoretic principles in combination with behavioral science and information technology. The field of behavioral informatics has the potential to optimize interventions through monitoring, assessing, and modeling behavior in support of providing tailored and timely interventions. We describe the components of a closed-loop system for health interventions. These components range from fine grain sensor characterizations to individual-based models of behavior change. We provide an example of a research health coaching platform that incorporates a closed-loop intervention based on these multiscale models. Using this early prototype, we illustrate how the optimized and personalized methodology and technology can support self-management and remote care. We note that despite the existing examples of research projects and our platform, significant future research is required to convert this vision to full-scale implementations. PMID:26441408

The Omaha System as a Structured Instrument for Bridging Nursing Informatics With Public Health Nursing Education: A Feasibility Study.

PubMed

Eardley, Debra L; Krumwiede, Kelly A; Secginli, Selda; Garner, Linda; DeBlieck, Conni; Cosansu, Gulhan; Nahcivan, Nursen O

2018-06-01

Advancements in healthcare systems include adoption of health information technology to ensure healthcare quality. Educators are challenged to determine strategies to integrate health information technology into nursing curricula for building a nursing workforce competent with electronic health records, standardized terminology, evidence-based practice, and evaluation. Nursing informatics, a growing specialty field, comprises health information technology relative to the profession of nursing. It is essential to integrate nursing informatics across nursing curricula to effectively position competent graduates in technology-laden healthcare environments. Nurse scholars developed and evaluated a nursing informatics case study assignment used in undergraduate level public health nursing courses. The assignment included an unfolding scenario followed by electronic health record charting using standardized terminology to guide the nursing process. The assignment was delivered either online or in class. Seventy-two undergraduate students completed the assignment and a posttest. Fifty-one students completed a satisfaction survey. Results indicated that students who completed the assignment online demonstrated a higher level of content mastery than those who completed the assignment in class. Content mastery was based on posttest results, which evaluated students' electronic health record charting for the nursing assessment, evidence-based interventions, and evaluations. This innovative approach may be valuable to educators in response to the National Academy of Sciences recommendations for healthcare education reform.

Advancing the Framework: Use of Health Data—A Report of a Working Conference of the American Medical Informatics Association

PubMed Central

Bloomrosen, Meryl; Detmer, Don

2008-01-01

The fields of health informatics and biomedical research increasingly depend on the availability of aggregated health data. Yet, despite over fifteen years of policy work on health data issues, the United States (U.S.) lacks coherent policy to guide users striving to navigate the ethical, political, technical, and economic challenges associated with health data use. In 2007, building on more than a decade of previous work, the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) convened a panel of experts to stimulate discussion about and action on a national framework for health data use. This initiative is being carried out in the context of rapidly accelerating advances in the fields of health informatics and biomedical research, many of which are dependent on the availability of aggregated health data. Use of these data poses complex challenges that must be addressed by public policy. This paper highlights the results of the meeting, presents data stewardship as a key building block in the national framework, and outlines stewardship principles for the management of health information. The authors also introduce a taxonomy developed to focus definitions and terminology in the evolving field of health data applications. Finally, they identify areas for further policy analysis and recommend that public and private sector organizations elevate consideration of a national framework on the uses of health data to a top priority. PMID:18755988

Transforming consumer health informatics through a patient work framework: connecting patients to context.

PubMed

Valdez, Rupa S; Holden, Richard J; Novak, Laurie L; Veinot, Tiffany C

2015-01-01

Designing patient-centered consumer health informatics (CHI) applications requires understanding and creating alignment with patients' and their family members' health-related activities, referred to here as 'patient work'. A patient work approach to CHI draws on medical social science and human factors engineering models and simultaneously attends to patients, their family members, activities, and context. A patient work approach extends existing approaches to CHI design that are responsive to patients' biomedical realities and personal skills and behaviors. It focuses on the embeddedness of patients' health management in larger processes and contexts and prioritizes patients' perspectives on illness management. Future research is required to advance (1) theories of patient work, (2) methods for assessing patient work, and (3) techniques for translating knowledge of patient work into CHI application design. Advancing a patient work approach within CHI is integral to developing and deploying consumer-facing technologies that are integrated with patients' everyday lives. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com. For numbered affiliations see end of article.

Informatics and operations--let's get integrated.

PubMed

Marsolo, Keith

2013-01-01

The widespread adoption of commercial electronic health records (EHRs) presents a significant challenge to the field of informatics. In their current form, EHRs function as a walled garden and prevent the integration of outside tools and services. This impedes the widespread adoption and diffusion of research interventions into the clinic. In most institutions, EHRs are supported by clinical operations staff who are largely separate from their informatics counterparts. This relationship needs to change. Research informatics and clinical operations need to work more closely on the implementation and configuration of EHRs to ensure that they are used to collect high-quality data for research and improvement at the point of care. At the same time, the informatics community needs to lobby commercial EHR vendors to open their systems and design new architectures that allow for the integration of external applications and services.

Consumer Health Informatics: Promoting Patient Self-care Management of Illnesses and Health.

PubMed

Jung, Minsoo

Consumer health informatics (CHI) is propelling important changes for medical providers and the lives of patients through information and communications technology. Independently, medical consumers seek, collect, and use health information for decision making. However, when constructing a CHI-based medical platform, high technology must be applied in a fully understandable and usable format for both health care providers and consumers. This study examines the present status of CHI and its effect on medical consumers. For the development of CHI, we discuss the need for tailored health communications and capacity building with chronic patients at the medical center. First, empowerment is a key characteristic needed for medical consumer health care management. However, promoting patient self-care management of illnesses and health is necessary to create conjugation where cooperation with medical service providers is possible. Also, establishing a health care delivery system that will support cooperation is necessary. Second, tailored health communications can uniquely construct the health information of patients, which prevents unnecessary or excessive information from leading patients to confused and inappropriate decisions. Ultimately, through the present environment of health communication, the innovation of a consumer health care information system has become the tide of the times and the positive effect of improved health can be expected.

Biomedical and health informatics education and research at the Information Technology Institute in Egypt.

PubMed

Hussein, R; Khalifa, A

2011-01-01

During the last decade, Egypt has experienced a revolution in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that has had a corresponding impact on the field of healthcare. Since 1993, the Information Technology Institute (ITI) has been leading the development of the Information Technology (IT) professional training and education in Egypt to produce top quality IT professionals who are considered now the backbone of the IT revolution in Egypt. For the past five years, ITI has been adopting the objective of building high caliber health professionals who can effectively serve the ever-growing information society. Academic links have been established with internationally renowned universities, e.g., Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in US, University of Leipzig in Germany, in addition those with the Egyptian Fellowship Board in order to enrich ITI Medical Informatics Education and Research. The ITI Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI) education and training programs target fresh graduates as well as life-long learners. Therefore, the program's learning objectives are framed within the context of the four specialization tracks: Healthcare Management (HCM), Biomedical Informatics Research (BMIR), Bioinformatics Professional (BIP), and Healthcare Professional (HCP). The ITI BMHI research projects tackle a wide-range of current challenges in this field, such as knowledge management in healthcare, providing tele-consultation services for diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases for underserved regions in Egypt, and exploring the cultural and educational aspects of Nanoinformatics. Since 2006, ITI has been positively contributing to develop the discipline of BMHI in Egypt in order to support improved healthcare services.

NASA Biomedical Informatics Capabilities and Needs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson-Throop, Kathy A.

2009-01-01

To improve on-orbit clinical capabilities by developing and providing operational support for intelligent, robust, reliable, and secure, enterprise-wide and comprehensive health care and biomedical informatics systems with increasing levels of autonomy, for use on Earth, low Earth orbit & exploration class missions. Biomedical Informatics is an emerging discipline that has been defined as the study, invention, and implementation of structures and algorithms to improve communication, understanding and management of medical information. The end objective of biomedical informatics is the coalescing of data, knowledge, and the tools necessary to apply that data and knowledge in the decision-making process, at the time and place that a decision needs to be made.

Steps in Moving Evidence-Based Health Informatics from Theory to Practice.

PubMed

Rigby, Michael; Magrabi, Farah; Scott, Philip; Doupi, Persephone; Hypponen, Hannele; Ammenwerth, Elske

2016-10-01

To demonstrate and promote the importance of applying a scientific process to health IT design and implementation, and of basing this on research principles and techniques. A review by international experts linked to the IMIA Working Group on Technology Assessment and Quality Development. Four approaches are presented, linking to the creation of national professional expectations, adherence to research-based standards, quality assurance approaches to ensure safety, and scientific measurement of impact. Solely marketing- and aspiration-based approaches to health informatics applications are no longer ethical or acceptable when scientifically grounded evidence-based approaches are available and in use.

Metropolis revisited: the evolving role of librarians in informatics education for the health professions

PubMed Central

King, Samuel B.; Lapidus, Mariana

2015-01-01

Objective: The authors' goal was to assess changes in the role of librarians in informatics education from 2004 to 2013. This is a follow-up to “Metropolis Redux: The Unique Importance of Library Skills in Informatics,” a 2004 survey of informatics programs. Methods: An electronic survey was conducted in January 2013 and sent to librarians via the MEDLIB-L email discussion list, the library section of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the Medical Informatics Section of the Medical Library Association, the Information Technology Interest Group of the Association of College and Research Libraries/New England Region, and various library directors across the country. Results: Librarians from fifty-five institutions responded to the survey. Of these respondents, thirty-four included librarians in nonlibrary aspects of informatics training. Fifteen institutions have librarians participating in leadership positions in their informatics programs. Compared to the earlier survey, the role of librarians has evolved. Conclusions: Librarians possess skills that enable them to participate in informatics programs beyond a narrow library focus. Librarians currently perform significant leadership roles in informatics education. There are opportunities for librarian interdisciplinary collaboration in informatics programs. Implications: Informatics is much more than the study of technology. The information skills that librarians bring to the table enrich and broaden the study of informatics in addition to adding value to the library profession itself. PMID:25552939

Metropolis revisited: the evolving role of librarians in informatics education for the health professions.

PubMed

King, Samuel B; Lapidus, Mariana

2015-01-01

The authors' goal was to assess changes in the role of librarians in informatics education from 2004 to 2013. This is a follow-up to "Metropolis Redux: The Unique Importance of Library Skills in Informatics," a 2004 survey of informatics programs. An electronic survey was conducted in January 2013 and sent to librarians via the MEDLIB-L email discussion list, the library section of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the Medical Informatics Section of the Medical Library Association, the Information Technology Interest Group of the Association of College and Research Libraries/New England Region, and various library directors across the country. Librarians from fifty-five institutions responded to the survey. Of these respondents, thirty-four included librarians in nonlibrary aspects of informatics training. Fifteen institutions have librarians participating in leadership positions in their informatics programs. Compared to the earlier survey, the role of librarians has evolved. Librarians possess skills that enable them to participate in informatics programs beyond a narrow library focus. Librarians currently perform significant leadership roles in informatics education. There are opportunities for librarian interdisciplinary collaboration in informatics programs. Informatics is much more than the study of technology. The information skills that librarians bring to the table enrich and broaden the study of informatics in addition to adding value to the library profession itself.

Visualization of the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics Publications over the Last 25 Years.

PubMed

Yergens, D W; Tam-Tham, H; Minty, E P

2016-06-30

The last 25 years have been a period of innovation in the area of medical informatics. The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) has published, every year for the last quarter century, the Yearbook of Medical Informatics, collating selected papers from various journals in an attempt to provide a summary of the academic medical informatics literature. The objective of this paper is to visualize the evolution of the medical informatics field over the last 25 years according to the frequency of word occurrences in the papers published in the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics. A literature review was conducted examining the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics between 1992 and 2015. These references were collated into a reference manager application to examine the literature using keyword searches, word clouds, and topic clustering. The data was considered in its entirety, as well as segregated into 3 time periods to examine the evolution of main trends over time. Several methods were used, including word clouds, cluster maps, and custom developed web-based information dashboards. The literature search resulted in a total of 1210 references published in the Yearbook, of which 213 references were excluded, resulting in 997 references for visualization. Overall, we found that publications were more technical and methods-oriented between 1992 and 1999; more clinically and patient-oriented between 2000 and 2009; and noted the emergence of "big data", decision support, and global health in the past decade between 2010 and 2015. Dashboards were additionally created to show individual reference data, as well as, aggregated information. Medical informatics is a vast and expanding area with new methods and technologies being researched, implemented, and evaluated. Determining visualization approaches that enhance our understanding of literature is an active area of research, and like medical informatics, is constantly evolving as new software and algorithms

Innovation in transformative nursing leadership: nursing informatics competencies and roles.

PubMed

Remus, Sally; Kennedy, Margaret Ann

2012-12-01

In a recent brief to the Canadian Nurses Association's National Expert Commission on the Health of Our Nation, the Academy of Canadian Executive Nurses (ACEN) discussed leadership needs in the Canadian healthcare system, and promoted the pivotal role of nursing executives in transforming Canada's healthcare system into an integrated patient-centric system. Included among several recommendations was the need to develop innovative leadership competencies that enable nurse leaders to lead and advance transformative health system change. This paper focuses on an emerging "avant-garde executive leadership competency" recommended for today's health leaders to guide health system transformation. Specifically, this competency is articulated as "state of the art communication and technology savvy," and it implies linkages between nursing informatics competencies and transformational leadership roles for nurse executive. The authors of this paper propose that distinct nursing informatics competencies are required to augment traditional executive skills to support transformational outcomes of safe, integrated, high-quality care delivery through knowledge-driven care. International trends involving nursing informatics competencies and the evolution of new corporate informatics roles, such as chief nursing informatics officers (CNIOs), are demonstrating value and advanced transformational leadership as nursing executive roles that are informed by clinical data. Copyright © 2013 Longwoods Publishing.

Embedded librarian within an online health informatics graduate research course: a case study.

PubMed

Kumar, Sajeesh; Wu, Lin; Reynolds, Rebecca

2014-01-01

The Health Sciences Library and the Department of Health Informatics & Information Management at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis piloted an embedded librarian project in summer 2012. The value and effectiveness of the pilot project was evaluated by analyzing the content of e-mail questions received from the students and the students' answers to the pre- and post-class surveys. The project received positive feedback from the students and course faculty. Librarians collaborating with teaching faculty and interacting one-on-one with students in health information-intensive courses proved to be helpful for student learning.

Health Informatics in the Classroom: An Empirical Study to Investigate Higher Education's Response to Healthcare Transformation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ashrafi, Noushin; Kuilboer, Jean-Pierre; Joshi, Chaitanya; Ran, Iris; Pande, Priyanka

2014-01-01

The explosive advances in information technology combined with the current climate for health care reform have intensified the need for skilled individuals who can develop, understand, and manage medical information systems in organizations. Health Informatics facilitates quality care at a reasonable cost by allowing access to the right data by…

A comparative analysis of moral principles and behavioral norms in eight ethical codes relevant to health sciences librarianship, medical informatics, and the health professions.

PubMed

Byrd, Gary D; Winkelstein, Peter

2014-10-01

Based on the authors' shared interest in the interprofessional challenges surrounding health information management, this study explores the degree to which librarians, informatics professionals, and core health professionals in medicine, nursing, and public health share common ethical behavior norms grounded in moral principles. Using the "Principlism" framework from a widely cited textbook of biomedical ethics, the authors analyze the statements in the ethical codes for associations of librarians (Medical Library Association [MLA], American Library Association, and Special Libraries Association), informatics professionals (American Medical Informatics Association [AMIA] and American Health Information Management Association), and core health professionals (American Medical Association, American Nurses Association, and American Public Health Association). This analysis focuses on whether and how the statements in these eight codes specify core moral norms (Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-Maleficence, and Justice), core behavioral norms (Veracity, Privacy, Confidentiality, and Fidelity), and other norms that are empirically derived from the code statements. These eight ethical codes share a large number of common behavioral norms based most frequently on the principle of Beneficence, then on Autonomy and Justice, but rarely on Non-Maleficence. The MLA and AMIA codes share the largest number of common behavioral norms, and these two associations also share many norms with the other six associations. The shared core of behavioral norms among these professions, all grounded in core moral principles, point to many opportunities for building effective interprofessional communication and collaboration regarding the development, management, and use of health information resources and technologies.

Informatics Essentials for DNPs.

PubMed

Jenkins, Melinda L

2018-01-01

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) programs are proliferating around the US as advanced practice nursing programs evolve to build capacity by adding content on professional leadership, policy, and quality improvement to the traditional clinical content. One of the eight "Essentials" for DNP education is "Information systems/technology and patient care technology for the improvement and transformation of health care."[1] A required graduate course was revised and updated in 2017 to provide a foundation in clinical informatics for DNPs, as well as for nursing informatics specialists. Components of the online course, assignments, and free online resources linked to the DNP Essentials are described in this paper.

Commentaries on “Informatics and Medicine: From Molecules to Populations”

PubMed Central

Altman, R. B.; Balling, R.; Brinkley, J. F.; Coiera, E.; Consorti, F.; Dhansay, M. A.; Geissbuhler, A.; Hersh, W.; Kwankam, S. Y.; Lorenzi, N. M.; Martin-Sanchez, F.; Mihalas, G. I.; Shahar, Y.; Takabayashi, K.; Wiederhold, G.

2009-01-01

Summary Objective To discuss interdisciplinary research and education in the context of informatics and medicine by commenting on the paper of Kuhn et al. “Informatics and Medicine: From Molecules to Populations”. Method Inviting an international group of experts in biomedical and health informatics and related disciplines to comment on this paper. Results and Conclusions The commentaries include a wide range of reasoned arguments and original position statements which, while strongly endorsing the educational needs identified by Kuhn et al., also point out fundamental challenges that are very specific to the unusual combination of scientific, technological, personal and social problems characterizing biomedical informatics. They point to the ultimate objectives of managing difficult human health problems, which are unlikely to yield to technological solutions alone. The psychological, societal, and environmental components of health and disease are emphasized by several of the commentators, setting the stage for further debate and constructive suggestions. PMID:18690363

Strategic planning of the master programme in health informatics at Aalborg University: targeting and updating the programme, to meet explicit customer needs.

PubMed

Nøhr, C; Bygholm, A; Hejlesen, O

1998-06-01

Education is essentially giving people new skills and qualifications to fulfil certain tasks. In planning and managing educational programmes it is crucial to know what skills and what qualifications are needed to carry out the tasks in question, not to mention the importance of knowing what tasks are relevant to carry out. The programme in health informatics at Aalborg University produces health informatics professionals. The students are developing skills in solving informatics problems in health care organisations. The programme has been running for 3 years now and to maintain the perception of the aim for the programme a number of activities have been launched. In the following, the programme will be presented, the activities to obtain information on how to keep the programme targeted and updated will be described and the changes that are going to be introduced will be outlined.

New study program: Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Specialist Study in Medical Informatics.

PubMed

Hercigonja-Szekeres, Mira; Simić, Diana; Božikov, Jadranka; Vondra, Petra

2014-01-01

Paper presents an overview of the EU funded Project of Curriculum Development for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Specialist Study in Medical Informatics named MEDINFO to be introduced in Croatia. The target group for the program is formed by professionals in any of the areas of medicine, IT professionals working on applications of IT for health and researchers and teachers in medical informatics. In addition to Croatian students, the program will also provide opportunity for enrolling students from a wider region of Southeast Europe. Project partners are two faculties of the University of Zagreb - Faculty of Organization and Informatics from Varaždin and School of Medicine, Andrija Štampar School of Public Health from Zagreb with the Croatian Society for Medical Informatics, Croatian Chamber of Economy, and Ericsson Nikola Tesla Company as associates.

Biomedical informatics training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

PubMed

Severtson, D J; Pape, L; Page, C D; Shavlik, J W; Phillips, G N; Flatley Brennan, P

2007-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to describe biomedical informatics training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). We reviewed biomedical informatics training, research, and faculty/trainee participation at UW-Madison. There are three primary approaches to training 1) The Computation & Informatics in Biology & Medicine Training Program, 2) formal biomedical informatics offered by various campus departments, and 3) individualized programs. Training at UW-Madison embodies the features of effective biomedical informatics training recommended by the American College of Medical Informatics that were delineated as: 1) curricula that integrate experiences among computational sciences and application domains, 2) individualized and interdisciplinary cross-training among a diverse cadre of trainees to develop key competencies that he or she does not initially possess, 3) participation in research and development activities, and 4) exposure to a range of basic informational and computational sciences. The three biomedical informatics training approaches immerse students in multidisciplinary training and education that is supported by faculty trainers who participate in collaborative research across departments. Training is provided across a range of disciplines and available at different training stages. Biomedical informatics training at UW-Madison illustrates how a large research University, with multiple departments across biological, computational and health fields, can provide effective and productive biomedical informatics training via multiple bioinformatics training approaches.

Developing Workforce Capacity in Public Health Informatics: Core Competencies and Curriculum Design.

PubMed

Wholey, Douglas R; LaVenture, Martin; Rajamani, Sripriya; Kreiger, Rob; Hedberg, Craig; Kenyon, Cynthia

2018-01-01

We describe a master's level public health informatics (PHI) curriculum to support workforce development. Public health decision-making requires intensive information management to organize responses to health threats and develop effective health education and promotion. PHI competencies prepare the public health workforce to design and implement these information systems. The objective for a Master's and Certificate in PHI is to prepare public health informaticians with the competencies to work collaboratively with colleagues in public health and other health professions to design and develop information systems that support population health improvement. The PHI competencies are drawn from computer, information, and organizational sciences. A curriculum is proposed to deliver the competencies and result of a pilot PHI program is presented. Since the public health workforce needs to use information technology effectively to improve population health, it is essential for public health academic institutions to develop and implement PHI workforce training programs.

Ten years of international collaboration in biomedical informatics and beyond: the AMAUTA program in Peru

PubMed Central

Fuller, Sherrilynne; Garcia, Patricia J; Holmes, King K; Kimball, Ann Marie

2010-01-01

Well-trained people are urgently needed to tackle global health challenges through information and communication technologies. In this report, AMAUTA, a joint international collaborative training program between the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia and the University of Washington, which has been training Peruvian health professionals in biomedical and health informatics since 1999, is described. Four short-term courses have been organized in Lima, offering training to more than 200 graduate-level students. Long-term training to masters or doctorate level has been undertaken by eight students at the University of Washington. A combination of short-term and long-term strategies was found to be effective for enhancing institutional research and training enterprise. The AMAUTA program promoted the development and institution of informatics research and training capacity in Peru, and has resulted in a group of trained people playing important roles at universities, non-government offices, and the Ministry of Health in Peru. At present, the hub is being extended into Latin American countries, promoting South-to-South collaborations. PMID:20595317

The imaging 3.0 informatics scorecard.

PubMed

Kohli, Marc; Dreyer, Keith J; Geis, J Raymond

2015-04-01

Imaging 3.0 is a radiology community initiative to empower radiologists to create and demonstrate value for their patients, referring physicians, and health systems. In image-guided health care, radiologists contribute to the entire health care process, well before and after the actual examination, and out to the point at which they guide clinical decisions and affect patient outcome. Because imaging is so pervasive, radiologists who adopt Imaging 3.0 concepts in their practice can help their health care systems provide consistently high-quality care at reduced cost. By doing this, radiologists become more valuable in the new health care setting. The authors describe how informatics is critical to embracing Imaging 3.0 and present a scorecard that can be used to gauge a radiology group's informatics resources and capabilities. Copyright © 2015 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Informatics: A Brief Survey.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

He, Shaoyi

2003-01-01

Provides a brief survey of informatics, defined as the application of information technology to various fields, with respect to its historical background, disciplinary identity, fundamental aspects, applications, and challenges. Highlights include biological, clinical, dental, environmental, geomatics, health, legal, management, medical, museum,…

A comparative analysis of moral principles and behavioral norms in eight ethical codes relevant to health sciences librarianship, medical informatics, and the health professions

PubMed Central

Byrd, Gary D.; Winkelstein, Peter

2014-01-01

Objective: Based on the authors' shared interest in the interprofessional challenges surrounding health information management, this study explores the degree to which librarians, informatics professionals, and core health professionals in medicine, nursing, and public health share common ethical behavior norms grounded in moral principles. Methods: Using the “Principlism” framework from a widely cited textbook of biomedical ethics, the authors analyze the statements in the ethical codes for associations of librarians (Medical Library Association [MLA], American Library Association, and Special Libraries Association), informatics professionals (American Medical Informatics Association [AMIA] and American Health Information Management Association), and core health professionals (American Medical Association, American Nurses Association, and American Public Health Association). This analysis focuses on whether and how the statements in these eight codes specify core moral norms (Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-Maleficence, and Justice), core behavioral norms (Veracity, Privacy, Confidentiality, and Fidelity), and other norms that are empirically derived from the code statements. Results: These eight ethical codes share a large number of common behavioral norms based most frequently on the principle of Beneficence, then on Autonomy and Justice, but rarely on Non-Maleficence. The MLA and AMIA codes share the largest number of common behavioral norms, and these two associations also share many norms with the other six associations. Implications: The shared core of behavioral norms among these professions, all grounded in core moral principles, point to many opportunities for building effective interprofessional communication and collaboration regarding the development, management, and use of health information resources and technologies. PMID:25349543

Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluation of The Structural Designing of Medical Informatics Dynamic Encyclopedia.

PubMed

Safdari, Reza; Shahmoradi, Leila; Hosseini-Beheshti, Molouk-Sadat; Nejad, Ahmadreza Farzaneh; Hosseiniravandi, Mohammad

2015-10-01

Encyclopedias and their compilation have become so prevalent as a valid cultural medium in the world. The daily development of computer industry and the expansion of various sciences have made indispensable the compilation of electronic, specialized encyclopedias, especially the web-based ones. This is an applied-developmental study conducted in 2014. First, the main terms in the field of medical informatics were gathered using MeSH Online 2014 and the supplementary terms of each were determined, and then the tree diagram of the terms was drawn based on their relationship in MeSH. Based on the studies done by the researchers, the tree diagram of the encyclopedia was drawn with respect to the existing areas in this field, and the terms gathered were put in related domains. In MeSH, 75 preferred terms together with 249 supplementary ones were indexed. One of the informatics' sub-branches is biomedical informatics and health which itself consists of three sub-divisions of bioinformatics, clinical informatics, and health informatics. Medical informatics which is a subdivision of clinical informatics has developed from the three fields of medical sciences, management and social sciences, and computational sciences and mathematics. Medical Informatics is created of confluence and fusion and applications of the three major scientific branches include health and biological sciences, social sciences and management sciences, computing and mathematical sciences, and according to that the structure of MeSH is weak for future development of Encyclopedia of Medical Informatics.

Health Informatics Scientists' Perception About Big Data Technology.

PubMed

Minou, John; Routsis, Fotios; Gallos, Parisis; Mantas, John

2017-01-01

The aim of this paper is to present the perceptions of the Health Informatics Scientists about the Big Data Technology in Healthcare. An empirical study was conducted among 46 scientists to assess their knowledge about the Big Data Technology and their perceptions about using this technology in healthcare. Based on the study findings, 86.7% of the scientists had knowledge of Big data Technology. Furthermore, 59.1% of the scientists believed that Big Data Technology refers to structured data. Additionally, 100% of the population believed that Big Data Technology can be implemented in Healthcare. Finally, the majority does not know any cases of use of Big Data Technology in Greece while 57,8% of the them mentioned that they knew use cases of the Big Data Technology abroad.

A short history of medical informatics in bosnia and herzegovina.

PubMed

Masic, Izet

2014-02-01

The health informatics profession in Bosnia and Herzegovina has relatively long history. Thirty five years from the introduction of the first automatic manipulation of data, thirty years from the establishment of Society for Medical Informatics BiH, twenty years from the establishment of the Scientific journal "Acta Informatica Medica (Acta Inform Med", indexed in PubMed, PubMed Central Scopus, Embase, etc.), twenty years on from the establishment of the first Cathedra for Medical Informatics on Biomedical Faculties in Bosnia and Herzegovina, ten years on from the introduction of the method of "Distance learning" in medical curriculum. The author of this article is eager to mark the importance of the above mentioned Anniversaries in the development of Health informatics in Bosnia and Herzegovina and have attempted, very briefly, to present the most significant events and persons with essential roles throughout this period.

Outcomes management of mechanically ventilated patients: utilizing informatics technology.

PubMed

Smith, K R

1998-11-01

This article examines an informatics system developed for outcomes management of the mechanically ventilated adult population, focusing on weaning the patient from mechanical ventilation. The link between medical informatics and outcomes management is discussed, along with the development of methods, tools, and data sets for outcomes management of the mechanically ventilated adult population at an acute care academic institution. Pros and cons of this system are identified, and specific areas for improvement of future health care outcomes medical informatics systems are discussed.

A patient-focused framework integrating self-management and informatics.

PubMed

Knight, Elizabeth P; Shea, Kimberly

2014-03-01

This article introduces a framework to (a) guide chronic illness self-management interventions through the integration of self-management and nursing informatics, (b) focus self-management research, and (c) promote ethical, patient-empowering technology use by practicing nurses. Existing theory and research focusing on chronic illness, self-management, health-enabling technology, and nursing informatics were reviewed and examined and key concepts were identified. A care paradigm focusing on concordance, rather than compliance, served as the overall guiding principle. This framework identifies key relationships among self-management (patient behaviors), health force (patient characteristics), and patient-defined goals. The role of health-enabling technology supporting these relationships is explored in the context of nursing informatics. The Empowerment Informatics framework can guide intervention design and evaluation and support practicing nurses' ethical use of technology as part of self-management support. Nurses worldwide provide support to patients who are living with chronic illnesses. As pressures related to cost and access to care increase, technology-enabled self-management interventions will become increasingly common. This patient-focused framework can guide nursing practice using technology that prioritizes patient needs. © 2013 Sigma Theta Tau International.

Improving Bridging from Informatics Practice to Theory.

PubMed

Lehmann, C U; Gundlapalli, A V

2015-01-01

In 1962, Methods of Information in Medicine ( MIM ) began to publish papers on the methodology and scientific fundamentals of organizing, representing, and analyzing data, information, and knowledge in biomedicine and health care. Considered a companion journal, Applied Clinical Informatics ( ACI ) was launched in 2009 with a mission to establish a platform that allows sharing of knowledge between clinical medicine and health IT specialists as well as to bridge gaps between visionary design and successful and pragmatic deployment of clinical information systems. Both journals are official journals of the International Medical Informatics Association. As a follow-up to prior work, we set out to explore congruencies and interdependencies in publications of ACI and MIM. The objectives were to describe the major topics discussed in articles published in ACI in 2014 and to determine if there was evidence that theory in 2014 MIM publications was informed by practice described in ACI publications in any year. We also set out to describe lessons learned in the context of bridging informatics practice and theory and offer opinions on how ACI editorial policies could evolve to foster and improve such bridging. We conducted a retrospective observational study and reviewed all articles published in ACI during the calendar year 2014 (Volume 5) for their main theme, conclusions, and key words. We then reviewed the citations of all MIM papers from 2014 to determine if there were references to ACI articles from any year. Lessons learned in the context of bridging informatics practice and theory and opinions on ACI editorial policies were developed by consensus among the two authors. A total of 70 articles were published in ACI in 2014. Clinical decision support, clinical documentation, usability, Meaningful Use, health information exchange, patient portals, and clinical research informatics emerged as major themes. Only one MIM article from 2014 cited an ACI article. There

Developing Workforce Capacity in Public Health Informatics: Core Competencies and Curriculum Design

PubMed Central

Wholey, Douglas R.; LaVenture, Martin; Rajamani, Sripriya; Kreiger, Rob; Hedberg, Craig; Kenyon, Cynthia

2018-01-01

We describe a master’s level public health informatics (PHI) curriculum to support workforce development. Public health decision-making requires intensive information management to organize responses to health threats and develop effective health education and promotion. PHI competencies prepare the public health workforce to design and implement these information systems. The objective for a Master’s and Certificate in PHI is to prepare public health informaticians with the competencies to work collaboratively with colleagues in public health and other health professions to design and develop information systems that support population health improvement. The PHI competencies are drawn from computer, information, and organizational sciences. A curriculum is proposed to deliver the competencies and result of a pilot PHI program is presented. Since the public health workforce needs to use information technology effectively to improve population health, it is essential for public health academic institutions to develop and implement PHI workforce training programs. PMID:29770321

Nursing Informatics Certification Worldwide: History, Pathway, Roles, and Motivation

PubMed Central

Cummins, M. R.; Gundlapalli, A. V.; Murray, P.; Park, H.-A.; Lehmann, C. U.

2016-01-01

Summary Introduction Official recognition and certification for informatics professionals are essential aspects of workforce development. Objective: To describe the history, pathways, and nuances of certification in nursing informatics across the globe; compare and contrast those with board certification in clinical informatics for physicians. Methods (1) A review of the representative literature on informatics certification and related competencies for nurses and physicians, and relevant websites for nursing informatics associations and societies worldwide; (2) similarities and differences between certification processes for nurses and physicians, and (3) perspectives on roles for nursing informatics professionals in healthcare Results The literature search for ‘nursing informatics certification’ yielded few results in PubMed; Google Scholar yielded a large number of citations that extended to magazines and other non-peer reviewed sources. Worldwide, there are several nursing informatics associations, societies, and workgroups dedicated to nursing informatics associated with medical/health informatics societies. A formal certification program for nursing informatics appears to be available only in the United States. This certification was established in 1992, in concert with the formation and definition of nursing informatics as a specialty practice of nursing by the American Nurses Association. Although informatics is inherently interprofessional, certification pathways for nurses and physicians have developed separately, following long-standing professional structures, training, and pathways aligned with clinical licensure and direct patient care. There is substantial similarity with regard to the skills and competencies required for nurses and physicians to obtain informatics certification in their respective fields. Nurses may apply for and complete a certification examination if they have experience in the field, regardless of formal training. Increasing

Visualization of the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics Publications over the Last 25 Years

PubMed Central

Tam-Tham, H.; Minty, E. P.

2016-01-01

Summary Background The last 25 years have been a period of innovation in the area of medical informatics. The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) has published, every year for the last quarter century, the Yearbook of Medical Informatics, collating selected papers from various journals in an attempt to provide a summary of the academic medical informatics literature. The objective of this paper is to visualize the evolution of the medical informatics field over the last 25 years according to the frequency of word occurrences in the papers published in the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics. Methods A literature review was conducted examining the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics between 1992 and 2015. These references were collated into a reference manager application to examine the literature using keyword searches, word clouds, and topic clustering. The data was considered in its entirety, as well as segregated into 3 time periods to examine the evolution of main trends over time. Several methods were used, including word clouds, cluster maps, and custom developed web-based information dashboards. Results The literature search resulted in a total of 1210 references published in the Yearbook, of which 213 references were excluded, resulting in 997 references for visualization. Overall, we found that publications were more technical and methods-oriented between 1992 and 1999; more clinically and patient-oriented between 2000 and 2009; and noted the emergence of “big data”, decision support, and global health in the past decade between 2010 and 2015. Dashboards were additionally created to show individual reference data, as well as, aggregated information. Conclusion Medical informatics is a vast and expanding area with new methods and technologies being researched, implemented, and evaluated. Determining visualization approaches that enhance our understanding of literature is an active area of research, and like medical informatics, is

Informatics for Peru in the new millennium.

PubMed

Karras, B T; Kimball, A M; Gonzales, V; Pautler, N A; Alarcón, J; Garcia, P J; Fuller, S

2001-01-01

As efforts continue to narrow the digital divide between the North and South, a new biomedical and health informatics training effort has been launched in Peru. This report describes the first year of work on this collaborative effort between the University of Washington (Seattle) Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia and Universidad Nacional de San Marcos (Peru) To describe activities in the first year of a new International Research and Training Program in Biomedical and Health Informatics. Descriptive analysis of key activities including an assessment of electronic environment through observation and survey, an in country short course with quantitative evaluation, and first round of recruitment of Peruvian scholars for long-term training in Seattle. A two-week short course on informatics was held in the country. Participants' success in learning was demonstrated through pretest/posttest. A systematic assessment of electronic environment in Peru was carried out and two scholars for long-term training were enrolled at the University of Washington, Seattle. Initial activity in the collaborative training effort has been high. Of particular importance in this environment is orchestration of efforts among interested parties with similar goals in Peru, and integration of informatics skills into ongoing large-scale research projects in country.

Continued multidisciplinary project-based learning - implementation in health informatics.

PubMed

Wessel, C; Spreckelsen, C

2009-01-01

Problem- and project-based learning are approved methods to train students, graduates and post-graduates in scientific and other professional skills. The students are trained on realistic scenarios in a broader context. For students specializing in health informatics we introduced continued multidisciplinary project-based learning (CM-PBL) at a department of medical informatics. The training approach addresses both students of medicine and students of computer science. The students are full members of an ongoing research project and develop a project-related application or module, or explore or evaluate a sub-project. Two teachers guide and review the students' work. The training on scientific work follows a workflow with defined milestones. The team acts as peer group. By participating in the research team's work the students are trained on professional skills. A research project on a web-based information system on hospitals built the scenario for the realistic context. The research team consisted of up to 14 active members at a time, who were scientists and students of computer science and medicine. The well communicated educational approach and team policy fostered the participation of the students. Formative assessment and evaluation showed a considerable improvement of the students' skills and a high participant satisfaction. Alternative education approaches such as project-based learning empower students to acquire scientific knowledge and professional skills, especially the ability of life-long learning, multidisciplinary team work and social responsibility.

Geo-spatial Informatics in International Public Health Nursing Education.

PubMed

Kerr, Madeleine J; Honey, Michelle L L; Krzyzanowski, Brittany

2016-01-01

This poster describes results of an undergraduate nursing informatics experience. Students applied geo-spatial methods to community assessments in two urban regions of New Zealand and the United States. Students used the Omaha System standardized language to code their observations during a brief community assessment activity and entered their data into a mapping program developed in Esri ArcGIS Online, a geographic information system. Results will be displayed in tables and maps to allow comparison among the communities. The next generation of nurses can employ geo-spatial informatics methods to contribute to innovative community assessment, planning and policy development.

A Short History of Medical Informatics in Bosnia and Herzegovina

PubMed Central

Masic, Izet

2014-01-01

The health informatics profession in Bosnia and Herzegovina has relatively long history. Thirty five years from the introduction of the first automatic manipulation of data, thirty years from the establishment of Society for Medical Informatics BiH, twenty years from the establishment of the Scientific journal “Acta Informatica Medica (Acta Inform Med”, indexed in PubMed, PubMed Central Scopus, Embase, etc.), twenty years on from the establishment of the first Cathedra for Medical Informatics on Biomedical Faculties in Bosnia and Herzegovina, ten years on from the introduction of the method of “Distance learning” in medical curriculum. The author of this article is eager to mark the importance of the above mentioned Anniversaries in the development of Health informatics in Bosnia and Herzegovina and have attempted, very briefly, to present the most significant events and persons with essential roles throughout this period. PMID:24648621

The jubilee of medical informatics in bosnia and herzegovina - 20 years anniversary.

PubMed

Masic, Izet

2009-01-01

NONE DECLARED LAST TWO YEARS, THE HEALTH INFORMATICS PROFESSION CELEBRATED FIVE JUBILEES IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: thirty years from the introduction of the first automatic manipulation of data, twenty years from the establishment of Society for Medical Informatics BiH, fifteen years from the establishment of the Scientific and Professional Journal of the Society for Medical Informatics of Bosnia and Herzegovina "Acta Informatica Medica", fifteen years on from the establishment of the first Cathedra for Medical Informatics on Biomedical Faculties in Bosnia and Herzegovina and five years on from the introduction of the method of "Distance learning" in medical curriculum. The author of this article are eager to mark the importance of the above mentioned Anniversaries in the development of Health informatics in Bosnia and Herzegovina and have attempted, very briefly, to present the most significant events and persons with essential roles throughout this period.

The Biodiversity Informatics Potential Index

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Biodiversity informatics is a relatively new discipline extending computer science in the context of biodiversity data, and its development to date has not been uniform throughout the world. Digitizing effort and capacity building are costly, and ways should be found to prioritize them rationally. The proposed 'Biodiversity Informatics Potential (BIP) Index' seeks to fulfill such a prioritization role. We propose that the potential for biodiversity informatics be assessed through three concepts: (a) the intrinsic biodiversity potential (the biological richness or ecological diversity) of a country; (b) the capacity of the country to generate biodiversity data records; and (c) the availability of technical infrastructure in a country for managing and publishing such records. Methods Broadly, the techniques used to construct the BIP Index were rank correlation, multiple regression analysis, principal components analysis and optimization by linear programming. We built the BIP Index by finding a parsimonious set of country-level human, economic and environmental variables that best predicted the availability of primary biodiversity data accessible through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) network, and constructing an optimized model with these variables. The model was then applied to all countries for which sufficient data existed, to obtain a score for each country. Countries were ranked according to that score. Results Many of the current GBIF participants ranked highly in the BIP Index, although some of them seemed not to have realized their biodiversity informatics potential. The BIP Index attributed low ranking to most non-participant countries; however, a few of them scored highly, suggesting that these would be high-return new participants if encouraged to contribute towards the GBIF mission of free and open access to biodiversity data. Conclusions The BIP Index could potentially help in (a) identifying countries most likely to

Medical informatics education: an alternative pathway for training informationists

PubMed Central

Hersh, William

2002-01-01

Recognition of the growing complexity of health information needs has led to a call for the creation of a new health care professional, the informationist. Controversy exists as to the role of such individuals and what their training should be. A library science degree, augmented with clinical background or experience, is one pathway. Another to consider is training in medical informatics. With the right coursework, individuals trained in medical informatics should be equally well qualified to assume the role of informationists. PMID:11838463

Examining the Impact of Non-Technical Security Management Factors on Information Security Management in Health Informatics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Imam, Abbas H.

2013-01-01

Complexity of information security has become a major issue for organizations due to incessant threats to information assets. Healthcare organizations are particularly concerned with security owing to the inherent vulnerability of sensitive information assets in health informatics. While the non-technical security management elements have been at…

The Jubilee of Medical Informatics in Bosnia and Herzegovina - 20 Years Anniversary

PubMed Central

Masic, Izet

2009-01-01

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: NONE DECLARED Last two years, the health informatics profession celebrated five jubilees in Bosnia and Herzegovina: thirty years from the introduction of the first automatic manipulation of data, twenty years from the establishment of Society for Medical Informatics BiH, fifteen years from the establishment of the Scientific and Professional Journal of the Society for Medical Informatics of Bosnia and Herzegovina „Acta Informatica Medica“, fifteen years on from the establishment of the first Cathedra for Medical Informatics on Biomedical Faculties in Bosnia and Herzegovina and five years on from the introduction of the method of “Distance learning” in medical curriculum. The author of this article are eager to mark the importance of the above mentioned Anniversaries in the development of Health informatics in Bosnia and Herzegovina and have attempted, very briefly, to present the most significant events and persons with essential roles throughout this period. PMID:24133382

Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluation of The Structural Designing of Medical Informatics Dynamic Encyclopedia

PubMed Central

Safdari, Reza; Shahmoradi, Leila; Hosseini-beheshti, Molouk-sadat; Nejad, Ahmadreza Farzaneh; Hosseiniravandi, Mohammad

2015-01-01

Introduction: Encyclopedias and their compilation have become so prevalent as a valid cultural medium in the world. The daily development of computer industry and the expansion of various sciences have made indispensable the compilation of electronic, specialized encyclopedias, especially the web-based ones. Materials and Methods: This is an applied-developmental study conducted in 2014. First, the main terms in the field of medical informatics were gathered using MeSH Online 2014 and the supplementary terms of each were determined, and then the tree diagram of the terms was drawn based on their relationship in MeSH. Based on the studies done by the researchers, the tree diagram of the encyclopedia was drawn with respect to the existing areas in this field, and the terms gathered were put in related domains. Findings: In MeSH, 75 preferred terms together with 249 supplementary ones were indexed. One of the informatics’ sub-branches is biomedical informatics and health which itself consists of three sub-divisions of bioinformatics, clinical informatics, and health informatics. Medical informatics which is a subdivision of clinical informatics has developed from the three fields of medical sciences, management and social sciences, and computational sciences and mathematics. Results and Discussion: Medical Informatics is created of confluence and fusion and applications of the three major scientific branches include health and biological sciences, social sciences and management sciences, computing and mathematical sciences, and according to that the structure of MeSH is weak for future development of Encyclopedia of Medical Informatics. PMID:26635440

Geospatial resources for supporting data standards, guidance and best practice in health informatics

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background The 1980s marked the occasion when Geographical Information System (GIS) technology was broadly introduced into the geo-spatial community through the establishment of a strong GIS industry. This technology quickly disseminated across many countries, and has now become established as an important research, planning and commercial tool for a wider community that includes organisations in the public and private health sectors. The broad acceptance of GIS technology and the nature of its functionality have meant that numerous datasets have been created over the past three decades. Most of these datasets have been created independently, and without any structured documentation systems in place. However, search and retrieval systems can only work if there is a mechanism for datasets existence to be discovered and this is where proper metadata creation and management can greatly help. This situation must be addressed through support mechanisms such as Web-based portal technologies, metadata editor tools, automation, metadata standards and guidelines and collaborative efforts with relevant individuals and organisations. Engagement with data developers or administrators should also include a strategy of identifying the benefits associated with metadata creation and publication. Findings The establishment of numerous Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs), and other Internet resources, is a testament to the recognition of the importance of supporting good data management and sharing practices across the geographic information community. These resources extend to health informatics in support of research, public services and teaching and learning. This paper identifies many of these resources available to the UK academic health informatics community. It also reveals the reluctance of many spatial data creators across the wider UK academic community to use these resources to create and publish metadata, or deposit their data in repositories for sharing. The Go

Facilitating biomedical researchers' interrogation of electronic health record data: Ideas from outside of biomedical informatics.

PubMed

Hruby, Gregory W; Matsoukas, Konstantina; Cimino, James J; Weng, Chunhua

2016-04-01

Electronic health records (EHR) are a vital data resource for research uses, including cohort identification, phenotyping, pharmacovigilance, and public health surveillance. To realize the promise of EHR data for accelerating clinical research, it is imperative to enable efficient and autonomous EHR data interrogation by end users such as biomedical researchers. This paper surveys state-of-art approaches and key methodological considerations to this purpose. We adapted a previously published conceptual framework for interactive information retrieval, which defines three entities: user, channel, and source, by elaborating on channels for query formulation in the context of facilitating end users to interrogate EHR data. We show the current progress in biomedical informatics mainly lies in support for query execution and information modeling, primarily due to emphases on infrastructure development for data integration and data access via self-service query tools, but has neglected user support needed during iteratively query formulation processes, which can be costly and error-prone. In contrast, the information science literature has offered elaborate theories and methods for user modeling and query formulation support. The two bodies of literature are complementary, implying opportunities for cross-disciplinary idea exchange. On this basis, we outline the directions for future informatics research to improve our understanding of user needs and requirements for facilitating autonomous interrogation of EHR data by biomedical researchers. We suggest that cross-disciplinary translational research between biomedical informatics and information science can benefit our research in facilitating efficient data access in life sciences. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Examining the Relationship Between Nursing Informatics Competency and the Quality of Information Processing.

PubMed

Al-Hawamdih, Sajidah; Ahmad, Muayyad M

2018-03-01

The purpose of this study was to examine nursing informatics competency and the quality of information processing among nurses in Jordan. The study was conducted in a large hospital with 380 registered nurses. The hospital introduced the electronic health record in 2010. The measures used in this study were personal and job characteristics, self-efficacy, Self-Assessment Nursing Informatics Competencies, and Health Information System Monitoring Questionnaire. The convenience sample consisted of 99 nurses who used the electronic health record for at least 3 months. The analysis showed that nine predictors explained 22% of the variance in the quality of information processing, whereas the statistically significant predictors were nursing informatics competency, clinical specialty, and years of nursing experience. There is a need for policies that advocate for every nurse to be educated in nursing informatics and the quality of information processing.

Twenty Years of Society of Medical Informatics of B&H and the Journal Acta Informatica Medica

PubMed Central

Masic, Izet

2012-01-01

In 2012, Health/Medical informatics profession celebrates five jubilees in Bosnia and Herzegovina: a) Thirty five years from the introduction of the first automatic manipulation of data; b) Twenty five years from establishing Society for Medical Informatics BiH; c) Twenty years from establishing scientific and professional journal of the Society for Medical Informatics of Bosnia and Herzegovina „Acta Informatica Medica“; d) Twenty years from establishing first Cathdra for Medical Informatics on biomedical faculties in Bosnia and Herzegovina and e) Ten years from the introduction of “Distance learning” in medical curriculum. All of the five mentioned activities in the area of Medical informatics had special importance and gave appropriate contribution in the development of Health/Medical informatics in Bosnia And Herzegovina. PMID:23322947

Twenty years of society of medical informatics of b&h and the journal acta informatica medica.

PubMed

Masic, Izet

2012-03-01

In 2012, Health/Medical informatics profession celebrates five jubilees in Bosnia and Herzegovina: a) Thirty five years from the introduction of the first automatic manipulation of data; b) Twenty five years from establishing Society for Medical Informatics BiH; c) Twenty years from establishing scientific and professional journal of the Society for Medical Informatics of Bosnia and Herzegovina "Acta Informatica Medica"; d) Twenty years from establishing first Cathdra for Medical Informatics on biomedical faculties in Bosnia and Herzegovina and e) Ten years from the introduction of "Distance learning" in medical curriculum. All of the five mentioned activities in the area of Medical informatics had special importance and gave appropriate contribution in the development of Health/Medical informatics in Bosnia And Herzegovina.

From bed to bench: bridging from informatics practice to theory: an exploratory analysis.

PubMed

Haux, R; Lehmann, C U

2014-01-01

In 2009, Applied Clinical Informatics (ACI)--focused on applications in clinical informatics--was launched as a companion journal to Methods of Information in Medicine (MIM). Both journals are official journals of the International Medical Informatics Association. To explore which congruencies and interdependencies exist in publications from theory to practice and from practice to theory and to determine existing gaps. Major topics discussed in ACI and MIM were analyzed. We explored if the intention of publishing companion journals to provide an information bridge from informatics theory to informatics practice and vice versa could be supported by this model. In this manuscript we will report on congruencies and interdependences from practice to theory and on major topics in MIM. Retrospective, prolective observational study on recent publications of ACI and MIM. All publications of the years 2012 and 2013 were indexed and analyzed. Hundred and ninety-six publications were analyzed (ACI 87, MIM 109). In MIM publications, modelling aspects as well as methodological and evaluation approaches for the analysis of data, information, and knowledge in biomedicine and health care were frequently raised - and often discussed from an interdisciplinary point of view. Important themes were ambient-assisted living, anatomic spatial relations, biomedical informatics as scientific discipline, boosting, coding, computerized physician order entry, data analysis, grid and cloud computing, health care systems and services, health-enabling technologies, health information search, health information systems, imaging, knowledge-based decision support, patient records, signal analysis, and web science. Congruencies between journals could be found in themes, but with a different focus on content. Interdependencies from practice to theory, found in these publications, were only limited. Bridging from informatics theory to practice and vice versa remains a major component of successful

IMIA Educational Recommendations and Nursing Informatics.

PubMed

Mantas, John; Hasman, Arie

2017-01-01

The updated version of the IMIA educational recommendations has given an adequate guidelines platform for developing educational programs in Biomedical and Health Informatics at all levels of education, vocational training, and distance learning. This chapter will provide a brief introduction of the recommendations pinpointing aspects for developing and assessing educational programs. We will provide a review of the existing feedback we have acquired during the IMIA site visits of accrediting educational programs at a worldwide level and discuss implementations issues. A brief overview of existing academic programs in Europe, North America and in other regions, especially for programs related to Nursing and to Nursing Informatics is provided. Finally, we will draw conclusions as how the IMIA recommendations may be required to be fitted into the specific needs of the Nursing Informatics and the needs of the Nursing professionals when they apply the recommendations to their academic and/or hospital/professional environments.

Neonatal Informatics: Transforming Neonatal Care Through Translational Bioinformatics

PubMed Central

Palma, Jonathan P.; Benitz, William E.; Tarczy-Hornoch, Peter; Butte, Atul J.; Longhurst, Christopher A.

2012-01-01

The future of neonatal informatics will be driven by the availability of increasingly vast amounts of clinical and genetic data. The field of translational bioinformatics is concerned with linking and learning from these data and applying new findings to clinical care to transform the data into proactive, predictive, preventive, and participatory health. As a result of advances in translational informatics, the care of neonates will become more data driven, evidence based, and personalized. PMID:22924023

Cognitive and learning sciences in biomedical and health instructional design: A review with lessons for biomedical informatics education.

PubMed

Patel, Vimla L; Yoskowitz, Nicole A; Arocha, Jose F; Shortliffe, Edward H

2009-02-01

Theoretical and methodological advances in the cognitive and learning sciences can greatly inform curriculum and instruction in biomedicine and also educational programs in biomedical informatics. It does so by addressing issues such as the processes related to comprehension of medical information, clinical problem-solving and decision-making, and the role of technology. This paper reviews these theories and methods from the cognitive and learning sciences and their role in addressing current and future needs in designing curricula, largely using illustrative examples drawn from medical education. The lessons of this past work are also applicable, however, to biomedical and health professional curricula in general, and to biomedical informatics training, in particular. We summarize empirical studies conducted over two decades on the role of memory, knowledge organization and reasoning as well as studies of problem-solving and decision-making in medical areas that inform curricular design. The results of this research contribute to the design of more informed curricula based on empirical findings about how people learn and think, and more specifically, how expertise is developed. Similarly, the study of practice can also help to shape theories of human performance, technology-based learning, and scientific and professional collaboration that extend beyond the domain of medicine. Just as biomedical science has revolutionized health care practice, research in the cognitive and learning sciences provides a scientific foundation for education in biomedicine, the health professions, and biomedical informatics.

Nurse Leadership and Informatics Competencies: Shaping Transformation of Professional Practice.

PubMed

Kennedy, Margaret Ann; Moen, Anne

2017-01-01

Nurse leaders must demonstrate capacities and develop specific informatics competencies in order to provide meaningful leadership and support ongoing transformation of the healthcare system. Concurrently, staff informatics competencies must be planned and fostered to support critical principles of transformation and patient safety in practice, advance evidence-informed practice, and enable nursing to flourish in complex digital environments across the healthcare continuum. In addition to nurse leader competencies, two key aspects of leadership and informatics competencies will be addressed in this chapter - namely, the transformation of health care and preparation of the nursing workforce.

Building Comprehensive and Sustainable Health Informatics Institutions in Developing Countries: Moi University Experience.

PubMed

Were, Martin C; Siika, Abraham; Ayuo, Paul O; Atwoli, Lukoye; Esamai, Fabian

2015-01-01

Current approaches for capacity building in Health Informatics (HI) in developing countries mostly focus on training, and often rely on support from foreign entities. In this paper, we describe a comprehensive and multidimensional capacity-building framework by Lansang & Dennis, and its application for HI capacity building as implemented in a higher-education institution in Kenya. This framework incorporates training, learning-by-doing, partnerships, and centers of excellence. At Moi University (Kenya), the training dimensions include an accredited Masters in HI Program, PhD in HI, and HI short courses. Learning-by-doing occurs through work within MOH facilities at the AMPATH care and treatment program serving 3 million people. Moi University has formed strategic HI partnerships with Regenstrief Institute, Inc. (USA), University of Bergen (Norway), and Makerere University (Uganda), among others. The University has also created an Institute of Biomedical Informatics to serve as an HI Center of Excellence in the region. This Institute has divisions in Training, Research, Service and Administration. The HI capacity-building approach by Moi provides a model for adoption by other institutions in resource-limited settings.

Global Health

MedlinePlus

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The educational needs of health information managers in an electronic environment: what information technology and health informatics skills and knowledge are required?

PubMed

Robertson, Merryn; Callen, Joanne

The profile of health information managers (HIMs) employed within one metropolitan area health service in New South Wales (NSW) was identified, together with which information technology and health informatics knowledge and skills they possess, and which ones they require in their workplace. The subjects worked in a variety of roles: 26% were employed in the area's Information Systems Division developing and implementing point-of-care clinical systems. Health information managers perceived they needed further continuing and formal education in point-of-care clinical systems, decision support systems, the electronic health record, privacy and security, health data collections, and database applications.

Project-based teaching in health informatics: a course on health care quality improvement.

PubMed

Moehr, J R; Berenji, G R; Green, C J; Kagolovsky, Y

2001-01-01

Teaching the skills and knowledge required in health informatics [1] is a challenge because the skill of applying knowledge in real life requires practice. We relate the experience with introducing a practice component to a course in "Health Care Quality Improvement". Working health care professionals were invited to bring an actual quality problem from their place of work and to work alongside students in running the problem through a quality improvement project lifecycle. Multiple technological and process oriented teaching innovations were employed including project sessions in observation rooms, video recording of these sessions, generation of demonstration examples and distance education components. Both students and their collaborators from the work place developed proficiency in applying quality improvement methods as well as in experiencing the realities of group processes, information gaps and organizational constraints. The principles used to achieve high involvement of the whole class, the employed resources and technical support are described. The resulting academic and practical achievements are discussed in relation to the alternative instructional modalities, and with respect to didactic implications for similar endeavors and beyond to other fields such as systems engineering.

Multi-Sensory Informatics Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Katai, Zoltan; Toth, Laszlo; Adorjani, Alpar Karoly

2014-01-01

A recent report by the joint Informatics Europe & ACM Europe Working Group on Informatics Education emphasizes that: (1) computational thinking is an important ability that all people should possess; (2) informatics-based concepts, abilities and skills are teachable, and must be included in the primary and particularly in the secondary school…

Education in Biomedical and Health Informatics in the Web 3.0 Era: Standards for data, curricula, and activities. Contribution of the IMIA Working Group on Health and Medical Informatics Education.

PubMed

Otero, P; Hersh, W

2011-01-01

Web 3.0 is transforming the World Wide Web by allowing knowledge and reasoning to be gleaned from its content. Describe a new scenario in education and training known as "Education 3.0" that can help in the promotion of learning in health informatics in a collaborative way. Review of the current standards available for curricula and learning activities in in Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI) for a Web 3.0 scenario. A new scenario known as "Education 3.0" can provide open educational resources created and reused throughout different institutions and improved by means of an international collaborative knowledge powered by the use of E-learning. Currently there are standards that could be used in identifying and deliver content in education in BMHI in the semantic web era such as Resource Description Format (RDF), Web Ontology Language (OWL) and Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). In addition, there are other standards to support healthcare education and training. There are few experiences in the use of standards in e-learning in BMHI published in the literature. Web 3.0 can propose new approaches to building the BMHI workforce so there is a need to build tools as knowledge infrastructure to leverage it. The usefulness of standards in the content and competencies of training programs in BMHI needs more experience and research so as to promote the interoperability and sharing of resources in this growing discipline.

Informatics Moments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Kate

2012-01-01

The informatics moment is the moment when a person seeks help in using some digital technology that is new to him or her. This article examines the informatics moment in people's everyday lives as they sought help at a branch public library. Four types of literacy were involved: basic literacy (reading and writing), computer literacy (use of a…

Improving Global Health Education: Development of a Global Health Competency Model

PubMed Central

Ablah, Elizabeth; Biberman, Dorothy A.; Weist, Elizabeth M.; Buekens, Pierre; Bentley, Margaret E.; Burke, Donald; Finnegan, John R.; Flahault, Antoine; Frenk, Julio; Gotsch, Audrey R.; Klag, Michael J.; Lopez, Mario Henry Rodriguez; Nasca, Philip; Shortell, Stephen; Spencer, Harrison C.

2014-01-01

Although global health is a recommended content area for the future of education in public health, no standardized global health competency model existed for master-level public health students. Without such a competency model, academic institutions are challenged to ensure that students are able to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) needed for successful performance in today's global health workforce. The Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) sought to address this need by facilitating the development of a global health competency model through a multistage modified-Delphi process. Practitioners and academic global health experts provided leadership and guidance throughout the competency development process. The resulting product, the Global Health Competency Model 1.1, includes seven domains and 36 competencies. The Global Health Competency Model 1.1 provides a platform for engaging educators, students, and global health employers in discussion of the KSAs needed to improve human health on a global scale. PMID:24445206

New approaches to health promotion and informatics education using Internet in the Czech Republic.

PubMed

Zvárová, J

2005-01-01

The paper describes nowadays information technology skills in the Czech Republic. It focuses on informatics education using Internet, ECDL concept and the links between computer literacy among health care professionals and quality of health care. Everyone understands that the main source of wealth of any nation is information management and the efficient transformation of information into knowledge. There appear completely new decisive factors for the economics of the near future based on circulation and exchange information. It is clear that modern health care cannot be built without information and communication technologies. We discuss several approaches how to contribute to some topics of information society in health care, namely the role of electronic health record, structured information, extraction of information from free medical texts and sharing knowledge stored in medical guidelines.

What is biomedical informatics?

PubMed Central

Bernstam, Elmer V.; Smith, Jack W.; Johnson, Todd R.

2009-01-01

Biomedical informatics lacks a clear and theoretically grounded definition. Many proposed definitions focus on data, information, and knowledge, but do not provide an adequate definition of these terms. Leveraging insights from the philosophy of information, we define informatics as the science of information, where information is data plus meaning. Biomedical informatics is the science of information as applied to or studied in the context of biomedicine. Defining the object of study of informatics as data plus meaning clearly distinguishes the field from related fields, such as computer science, statistics and biomedicine, which have different objects of study. The emphasis on data plus meaning also suggests that biomedical informatics problems tend to be difficult when they deal with concepts that are hard to capture using formal, computational definitions. In other words, problems where meaning must be considered are more difficult than problems where manipulating data without regard for meaning is sufficient. Furthermore, the definition implies that informatics research, teaching, and service should focus on biomedical information as data plus meaning rather than only computer applications in biomedicine. PMID:19683067

Publication trends in the medical informatics literature: 20 years of "Medical Informatics" in MeSH

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

Background The purpose of this study is to identify publication output, and research areas, as well as descriptively and quantitatively characterize the field of medical informatics through publication trend analysis over a twenty year period (1987–2006). Methods A bibliometric analysis of medical informatics citations indexed in Medline was performed using publication trends, journal frequency, impact factors, MeSH term frequencies and characteristics of citations. Results There were 77,023 medical informatics articles published during this 20 year period in 4,644 unique journals. The average annual article publication growth rate was 12%. The 50 identified medical informatics MeSH terms are rarely assigned together to the same document and are almost exclusively paired with a non-medical informatics MeSH term, suggesting a strong interdisciplinary trend. Trends in citations, journals, and MeSH categories of medical informatics output for the 20-year period are summarized. Average impact factor scores and weighted average impact factor scores increased over the 20-year period with two notable growth periods. Conclusion There is a steadily growing presence and increasing visibility of medical informatics literature over the years. Patterns in research output that seem to characterize the historic trends and current components of the field of medical informatics suggest it may be a maturing discipline, and highlight specific journals in which the medical informatics literature appears most frequently, including general medical journals as well as informatics-specific journals. PMID:19159472

Medical image informatics infrastructure design and applications.

PubMed

Huang, H K; Wong, S T; Pietka, E

1997-01-01

Picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) is a system integration of multimodality images and health information systems designed for improving the operation of a radiology department. As it evolves, PACS becomes a hospital image document management system with a voluminous image and related data file repository. A medical image informatics infrastructure can be designed to take advantage of existing data, providing PACS with add-on value for health care service, research, and education. A medical image informatics infrastructure (MIII) consists of the following components: medical images and associated data (including PACS database), image processing, data/knowledge base management, visualization, graphic user interface, communication networking, and application oriented software. This paper describes these components and their logical connection, and illustrates some applications based on the concept of the MIII.

Evaluation of a joint Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics international course in Peru

PubMed Central

Curioso, Walter H; Hansen, Jacquelyn R; Centurion-Lara, Arturo; Garcia, Patricia J; Wolf, Fredric M; Fuller, Sherrilynne; Holmes, King K; Kimball, Ann Marie

2008-01-01

Background New technologies that emerge at the interface of computational and biomedical science could drive new advances in global health, therefore more training in technology is needed among health care workers. To assess the potential for informatics training using an approach designed to foster interaction at this interface, the University of Washington and the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia developed and assessed a one-week course that included a new Bioinformatics (BIO) track along with an established Medical/Public Health Informatics track (MI) for participants in Peru. Methods We assessed the background of the participants, and measured the knowledge gained by track-specific (MI or BIO) 30-minute pre- and post-tests. Participants' attitudes were evaluated both by daily evaluations and by an end-course evaluation. Results Forty-three participants enrolled in the course – 20 in the MI track and 23 in the BIO track. Of 20 questions, the mean % score for the MI track increased from 49.7 pre-test (standard deviation or SD = 17.0) to 59.7 (SD = 15.2) for the post-test (P = 0.002, n = 18). The BIO track mean score increased from 33.6 pre-test to 51.2 post-test (P < 0.001, n = 21). Most comments (76%) about any aspect of the course were positive. The main perceived strength of the course was the quality of the speakers, and the main perceived weakness was the short duration of the course. Overall, the course acceptability was very good to excellent with a rating of 4.1 (scale 1–5), and the usefulness of the course was rated as very good. Most participants (62.9%) expressed a positive opinion about having had the BIO and MI tracks come together for some of the lectures. Conclusion Pre- and post-test results and the positive evaluations by the participants indicate that this first joint Bioinformatics and Medical/Public Health Informatics (MI and BIO) course was a success. PMID:18194533

Evaluation of a joint Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics international course in Peru.

PubMed

Curioso, Walter H; Hansen, Jacquelyn R; Centurion-Lara, Arturo; Garcia, Patricia J; Wolf, Fredric M; Fuller, Sherrilynne; Holmes, King K; Kimball, Ann Marie

2008-01-14

New technologies that emerge at the interface of computational and biomedical science could drive new advances in global health, therefore more training in technology is needed among health care workers. To assess the potential for informatics training using an approach designed to foster interaction at this interface, the University of Washington and the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia developed and assessed a one-week course that included a new Bioinformatics (BIO) track along with an established Medical/Public Health Informatics track (MI) for participants in Peru. We assessed the background of the participants, and measured the knowledge gained by track-specific (MI or BIO) 30-minute pre- and post-tests. Participants' attitudes were evaluated both by daily evaluations and by an end-course evaluation. Forty-three participants enrolled in the course - 20 in the MI track and 23 in the BIO track. Of 20 questions, the mean % score for the MI track increased from 49.7 pre-test (standard deviation or SD = 17.0) to 59.7 (SD = 15.2) for the post-test (P = 0.002, n = 18). The BIO track mean score increased from 33.6 pre-test to 51.2 post-test (P < 0.001, n = 21). Most comments (76%) about any aspect of the course were positive. The main perceived strength of the course was the quality of the speakers, and the main perceived weakness was the short duration of the course. Overall, the course acceptability was very good to excellent with a rating of 4.1 (scale 1-5), and the usefulness of the course was rated as very good. Most participants (62.9%) expressed a positive opinion about having had the BIO and MI tracks come together for some of the lectures. Pre- and post-test results and the positive evaluations by the participants indicate that this first joint Bioinformatics and Medical/Public Health Informatics (MI and BIO) course was a success.

The state of medical informatics in India: a roadmap for optimal organization.

PubMed

Sarbadhikari, Suptendra Nath

2005-04-01

In India, the healthcare delivery systems are based on manual record keeping despite a good telecommunication infrastructure. Unfortunately, Indian policy makers are yet to realize the importance of medical informatics (including tele-health, which comprises e-Health and Telemedicine) in delivering healthcare. In the medical curriculum also, nowhere is this treated as a subject or even as a tool for learning. The final aim of most of the medical and paramedical students should be to become good users, and if possible, also experts for advancing medical knowledge base through medical informatics. In view of the fast changing world of medical informatics, it is essential to formulate a flexible syllabus rather than a rigid one for incorporating into the regular curriculum of medical and paramedical education. Only after that one may expect all members of the healthcare delivery systems to adopt and apply medical informatics optimally as a routine tool for their services.

A proposed national research and development agenda for population health informatics: summary recommendations from a national expert workshop.

PubMed

Kharrazi, Hadi; Lasser, Elyse C; Yasnoff, William A; Loonsk, John; Advani, Aneel; Lehmann, Harold P; Chin, David C; Weiner, Jonathan P

2017-01-01

The Johns Hopkins Center for Population Health IT hosted a 1-day symposium sponsored by the National Library of Medicine to help develop a national research and development (R&D) agenda for the emerging field of population health informatics (PopHI). The symposium provided a venue for national experts to brainstorm, identify, discuss, and prioritize the top challenges and opportunities in the PopHI field, as well as R&D areas to address these. This manuscript summarizes the findings of the PopHI symposium. The symposium participants' recommendations have been categorized into 13 overarching themes, including policy alignment, data governance, sustainability and incentives, and standards/interoperability. The proposed consensus-based national agenda for PopHI consisted of 18 priority recommendations grouped into 4 broad goals: (1) Developing a standardized collaborative framework and infrastructure, (2) Advancing technical tools and methods, (3) Developing a scientific evidence and knowledge base, and (4) Developing an appropriate framework for policy, privacy, and sustainability. There was a substantial amount of agreement between all the participants on the challenges and opportunities for PopHI as well as on the actions that needed to be taken to address these. PopHI is a rapidly growing field that has emerged to address the population dimension of the Triple Aim. The proposed PopHI R&D agenda is comprehensive and timely, but should be considered only a starting-point, given that ongoing developments in health policy, population health management, and informatics are very dynamic, suggesting that the agenda will require constant monitoring and updating. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Development of national competency-based learning objectives "Medical Informatics" for undergraduate medical education.

PubMed

Röhrig, R; Stausberg, J; Dugas, M

2013-01-01

The aim of this project is to develop a catalogue of competency-based learning objectives "Medical Informatics" for undergraduate medical education (abbreviated NKLM-MI in German). The development followed a multi-level annotation and consensus process. For each learning objective a reason why a physician needs this competence was required. In addition, each objective was categorized according to the competence context (A = covered by medical informatics, B = core subject of medical informatics, C = optional subject of medical informatics), the competence level (1 = referenced knowledge, 2 = applied knowledge, 3 = routine knowledge) and a CanMEDS competence role (medical expert, communicator, collaborator, manager, health advocate, professional, scholar). Overall 42 objectives in seven areas (medical documentation and information processing, medical classifications and terminologies, information systems in healthcare, health telematics and telemedicine, data protection and security, access to medical knowledge and medical signal-/image processing) were identified, defined and consented. With the NKLM-MI the competences in the field of medical informatics vital to a first year resident physician are identified, defined and operationalized. These competencies are consistent with the recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA). The NKLM-MI will be submitted to the National Competence-Based Learning Objectives for Undergraduate Medical Education. The next step is implementation of these objectives by the faculties.

Translational informatics: an industry perspective.

PubMed

Cantor, Michael N

2012-01-01

Translational informatics (TI) is extremely important for the pharmaceutical industry, especially as the bar for regulatory approval of new medications is set higher and higher. This paper will explore three specific areas in the drug development lifecycle, from tools developed by precompetitive consortia to standardized clinical data collection to the effective delivery of medications using clinical decision support, in which TI has a major role to play. Advancing TI will require investment in new tools and algorithms, as well as ensuring that translational issues are addressed early in the design process of informatics projects, and also given higher weight in funding or publication decisions. Ultimately, the source of translational tools and differences between academia and industry are secondary, as long as they move towards the shared goal of improving health.

Communications satellites in the national and global health care information infrastructure: their role, impact, and issues

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zuzek, J. E.; Bhasin, K. B.

1996-01-01

Health care services delivered from a distance, known collectively as telemedicine, are being increasingly demonstrated on various transmission media. Telemedicine activities have included diagnosis by a doctor at a remote location, emergency and disaster medical assistance, medical education, and medical informatics. The ability of communications satellites to offer communication channels and bandwidth on demand, connectivity to mobile, remote and under served regions, and global access will afford them a critical role for telemedicine applications within the National and Global Information Infrastructure (NII/GII). The importance that communications satellites will have in telemedicine applications within the NII/GII the differences in requirements for NII vs. GII, the major issues such as interoperability, confidentiality, quality, availability, and costs, and preliminary conclusions for future usability based on the review of several recent trails at national and global levels are presented.

Applied nursing informatics research - state-of-the-art methodologies using electronic health record data.

PubMed

Park, Jung In; Pruinelli, Lisiane; Westra, Bonnie L; Delaney, Connie W

2014-01-01

With the pervasive implementation of electronic health records (EHR), new opportunities arise for nursing research through use of EHR data. Increasingly, comparative effectiveness research within and across health systems is conducted to identify the impact of nursing for improving health, health care, and lowering costs of care. Use of EHR data for this type of research requires use of national and internationally recognized nursing terminologies to normalize data. Research methods are evolving as large data sets become available through EHRs. Little is known about the types of research and analytic methods for applied to nursing research using EHR data normalized with nursing terminologies. The purpose of this paper is to report on a subset of a systematic review of peer reviewed studies related to applied nursing informatics research involving EHR data using standardized nursing terminologies.

People and ideas in medical informatics - a half century review.

PubMed

van Bemmel, J H

2011-01-01

OBJECTIVE. Reviewing the onset and the rapid changes to make realistic predictions on the future of medical informatics. METHODS. Pointing to the contributions of the early pioneers, who had their roots in other disciplines and by illustrating that from the onset an interdisciplinary approach was characteristic for our field. RESULTS. Some of the reasons for the changes in medical informatics are that nobody was able to predict the advent of the personal computer in the 1970s, the world-wide web in 1991, and the public start of the Internet in 1992, but foremost that nobody expected that it was not primarily the hardware or the software, but human factors that would be crucial for successful applications of computers in health care. In the past sometimes unrealistic expectations were held, such as on the impact of medical decision-support systems, or on the overly optimistic contributions of electronic health records. Although the technology is widely available, some applications appear to be far more complex than expected. Health care processes can seldom be fully standardized. Humans enter at least in two very different roles in the loop of information processing: as subjects conducting care - the clinicians - and as subjects that are the objects of care - the patients. CONCLUSIONS. Medical informatics lacks a specific methodology; methods are borrowed from adjacent disciplines such as physics, mathematics and, of course, computer science. Human factors play a major role in applying computers in health care. Everyone pursuing a career in biomedical informatics needs to be very aware of this. It is to be expected that the quality of health care will increasingly be assessed by computer systems to fulfill the requirements of medical evidence.

Pathology Informatics Essentials for Residents: A Flexible Informatics Curriculum Linked to Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Milestones.

PubMed

Henricks, Walter H; Karcher, Donald S; Harrison, James H; Sinard, John H; Riben, Michael W; Boyer, Philip J; Plath, Sue; Thompson, Arlene; Pantanowitz, Liron

2017-01-01

-Recognition of the importance of informatics to the practice of pathology has surged. Training residents in pathology informatics has been a daunting task for most residency programs in the United States because faculty often lacks experience and training resources. Nevertheless, developing resident competence in informatics is essential for the future of pathology as a specialty. -To develop and deliver a pathology informatics curriculum and instructional framework that guides pathology residency programs in training residents in critical pathology informatics knowledge and skills, and meets Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Informatics Milestones. -The College of American Pathologists, Association of Pathology Chairs, and Association for Pathology Informatics formed a partnership and expert work group to identify critical pathology informatics training outcomes and to create a highly adaptable curriculum and instructional approach, supported by a multiyear change management strategy. -Pathology Informatics Essentials for Residents (PIER) is a rigorous approach for educating all pathology residents in important pathology informatics knowledge and skills. PIER includes an instructional resource guide and toolkit for incorporating informatics training into residency programs that vary in needs, size, settings, and resources. PIER is available at http://www.apcprods.org/PIER (accessed April 6, 2016). -PIER is an important contribution to informatics training in pathology residency programs. PIER introduces pathology trainees to broadly useful informatics concepts and tools that are relevant to practice. PIER provides residency program directors with a means to implement a standardized informatics training curriculum, to adapt the approach to local program needs, and to evaluate resident performance and progress over time.

Ethics Certification of Health Information Professionals.

PubMed

Kluge, Eike-Henner; Lacroix, Paulette; Ruotsalainen, Pekka

2018-04-22

 To provide a model for ensuring the ethical acceptability of the provisions that characterize the interjurisdictional use of eHealth, telemedicine, and associated modalities of health care deliveiy that are currently in place.  Following the approach initiated in their Global Protection of Health Data project within the Security in Health Information Systems (SiHIS) working group of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), the authors analyze and evaluate relevant privacy and security approaches that are intended to stem the erosion of patients' trustworthiness in the handling of their sensitive information by health care and informatics professionals in the international context.  The authors found that while the majority of guidelines and ethical codes essentially focus on the role and functioning of the institutions that use EHRs and information technologies, little if any attention has been paid to the qualifications of the health informatics professionals (HIPs) who actualize and operate information systems to deal with or address relevant ethical issues.  The apparent failure to address this matter indicates that the ethical qualification of HIPs remains an important security issue and that the Global Protection of Health Data project initiated by the SiHIS working group in 2015 should be expanded to develop into an internationally viable method of certification. An initial model to this effect is sketched and discussed. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart.

Usability and accessibility in consumer health informatics current trends and future challenges.

PubMed

Goldberg, Larry; Lide, Bettijoyce; Lowry, Svetlana; Massett, Holly A; O'Connell, Trisha; Preece, Jennifer; Quesenbery, Whitney; Shneiderman, Ben

2011-05-01

It is a truism that, for innovative eHealth systems to have true value and impact, they must first and foremost be usable and accessible by clinicians, consumers, and other stakeholders. In this paper, current trends and future challenges in the usability and accessibility of consumer health informatics will be described. Consumer expectations of their healthcare providers and healthcare records in this new era of consumer-directed care will be explored, and innovative visualizations, assistive technologies, and other ways that healthcare information is currently being provided and/or shared will be described. Challenges for ensuring the usability of current and future systems will also be discussed. An innovative model for conducting systematic, timely, user-centered research on consumer-facing websites at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the ongoing efforts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to promote health information technology (HIT) usability standards and evaluation criteria will also be presented. Copyright © 2011 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. All rights reserved.

Pathology Informatics Essentials for Residents: A flexible informatics curriculum linked to Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education milestones

PubMed Central

Henricks, Walter H; Karcher, Donald S; Harrison, James H; Sinard, John H; Riben, Michael W; Boyer, Philip J; Plath, Sue; Thompson, Arlene; Pantanowitz, Liron

2016-01-01

Context: Recognition of the importance of informatics to the practice of pathology has surged. Training residents in pathology informatics have been a daunting task for most residency programs in the United States because faculty often lacks experience and training resources. Nevertheless, developing resident competence in informatics is essential for the future of pathology as a specialty. Objective: The objective of the study is to develop and deliver a pathology informatics curriculum and instructional framework that guides pathology residency programs in training residents in critical pathology informatics knowledge and skills and meets Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Informatics Milestones. Design: The College of American Pathologists, Association of Pathology Chairs, and Association for Pathology Informatics formed a partnership and expert work group to identify critical pathology informatics training outcomes and to create a highly adaptable curriculum and instructional approach, supported by a multiyear change management strategy. Results: Pathology Informatics Essentials for Residents (PIER) is a rigorous approach for educating all pathology residents in important pathology informatics knowledge and skills. PIER includes an instructional resource guide and toolkit for incorporating informatics training into residency programs that vary in needs, size, settings, and resources. PIER is available at http://www.apcprods.org/PIER (accessed April 6, 2016). Conclusions: PIER is an important contribution to informatics training in pathology residency programs. PIER introduces pathology trainees to broadly useful informatics concepts and tools that are relevant to practice. PIER provides residency program directors with a means to implement a standardized informatics training curriculum, to adapt the approach to local program needs, and to evaluate resident performance and progress over time. PMID:27563486

Building a Privacy, Ethics, and Data Access Framework for Real World Computerised Medical Record System Data: A Delphi Study. Contribution of the Primary Health Care Informatics Working Group.

PubMed

Liyanage, H; Liaw, S-T; Di Iorio, C T; Kuziemsky, C; Schreiber, R; Terry, A L; de Lusignan, S

2016-11-10

Privacy, ethics, and data access issues pose significant challenges to the timely delivery of health research. Whilst the fundamental drivers to ensure that data access is ethical and satisfies privacy requirements are similar, they are often dealt with in varying ways by different approval processes. To achieve a consensus across an international panel of health care and informatics professionals on an integrated set of privacy and ethics principles that could accelerate health data access in data-driven health research projects. A three-round consensus development process was used. In round one, we developed a baseline framework for privacy, ethics, and data access based on a review of existing literature in the health, informatics, and policy domains. This was further developed using a two-round Delphi consensus building process involving 20 experts who were members of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) and European Federation of Medical Informatics (EFMI) Primary Health Care Informatics Working Groups. To achieve consensus we required an extended Delphi process. The first round involved feedback on and development of the baseline framework. This consisted of four components: (1) ethical principles, (2) ethical guidance questions, (3) privacy and data access principles, and (4) privacy and data access guidance questions. Round two developed consensus in key areas of the revised framework, allowing the building of a newly, more detailed and descriptive framework. In the final round panel experts expressed their opinions, either as agreements or disagreements, on the ethics and privacy statements of the framework finding some of the previous round disagreements to be surprising in view of established ethical principles. This study develops a framework for an integrated approach to ethics and privacy. Privacy breech risk should not be considered in isolation but instead balanced by potential ethical benefit.

A strategic vision for telemedicine and medical informatics in space flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, D. R.; Bashshur, R. L.; Pool, S. L.; Doarn, C. R.; Merrell, R. C.; Logan, J. S.

2000-01-01

This Workshop was designed to assist in the ongoing development and application of telemedicine and medical informatics to support extended space flight. Participants included specialists in telemedicine and medical/health informatics (terrestrial and space) medicine from NASA, federal agencies, academic centers, and research and development institutions located in the United States and several other countries. The participants in the working groups developed vision statements, requirements, approaches, and recommendations pertaining to developing and implementing a strategy pertaining to telemedicine and medical informatics. Although some of the conclusions and recommendations reflect ongoing work at NASA, others provided new insight and direction that may require a reprioritization of current NASA efforts in telemedicine and medical informatics. This, however, was the goal of the Workshop. NASA is seeking other perspectives and views from leading practitioners in the fields of telemedicine and medical informatics to invigorate an essential and high-priority component of the International Space Station and future extended exploration missions. Subsequent workshops will further define and refine the general findings and recommendations achieved here. NASA's ultimate aim is to build a sound telemedicine and medical informatics operational system to provide the best medical care available for astronauts going to Mars and beyond.

A strategic vision for telemedicine and medical informatics in space flight.

PubMed

Williams, D R; Bashshur, R L; Pool, S L; Doarn, C R; Merrell, R C; Logan, J S

2000-01-01

This Workshop was designed to assist in the ongoing development and application of telemedicine and medical informatics to support extended space flight. Participants included specialists in telemedicine and medical/health informatics (terrestrial and space) medicine from NASA, federal agencies, academic centers, and research and development institutions located in the United States and several other countries. The participants in the working groups developed vision statements, requirements, approaches, and recommendations pertaining to developing and implementing a strategy pertaining to telemedicine and medical informatics. Although some of the conclusions and recommendations reflect ongoing work at NASA, others provided new insight and direction that may require a reprioritization of current NASA efforts in telemedicine and medical informatics. This, however, was the goal of the Workshop. NASA is seeking other perspectives and views from leading practitioners in the fields of telemedicine and medical informatics to invigorate an essential and high-priority component of the International Space Station and future extended exploration missions. Subsequent workshops will further define and refine the general findings and recommendations achieved here. NASA's ultimate aim is to build a sound telemedicine and medical informatics operational system to provide the best medical care available for astronauts going to Mars and beyond.

Medicalization of global health 2: The medicalization of global mental health.

PubMed

Clark, Jocalyn

2014-01-01

Once an orphan field, 'global mental health' now has wide acknowledgement and prominence on the global health agenda. Increased recognition draws needed attention to individual suffering and the population impacts, but medicalizing global mental health produces a narrow view of the problems and solutions. Early framing by advocates of the global mental health problem emphasised biological disease, linked psychiatry with neurology, and reinforced categories of mental health disorders. Universality of biomedical concepts across culture is assumed in the globalisation of mental health but is strongly disputed by transcultural psychiatrists and anthropologists. Global mental health movement priorities take an individualised view, emphasising treatment and scale-up and neglecting social and structural determinants of health. To meet international targets and address the problem's broad social and cultural dimensions, the global mental health movement and advocates must develop more comprehensive strategies and include more diverse perspectives.

The Top 100 Articles in the Medical Informatics: a Bibliometric Analysis.

PubMed

Nadri, Hamed; Rahimi, Bahlol; Timpka, Toomas; Sedghi, Shahram

2017-08-19

The number of citations that a research paper receives can be used as a measure of its scientific impact. The objective of this study was to identify and to examine the characteristics of top 100 cited articles in the field of Medical Informatics based on data acquired from the Thomson Reuters' Web of Science (WOS) in October, 2016. The data was collected using two procedures: first we included articles published in the 24 journals listed in the "Medical Informatics" category; second, we retrieved articles using the key words: "informatics", "medical informatics", "biomedical informatics", "clinical informatics" and "health informatics". After removing duplicate records, articles were ranked by the number of citations they received. When the 100 top cited articles had been identified, we collected the following information for each record: all WOS database citations, year of publication, journal, author names, authors' affiliation, country of origin and topics indexed for each record. Citations for the top 100 articles ranged from 346 to 7875, and citations per year ranged from 11.12 to 525. The majority of articles were published in the 2000s (n=43) and 1990s (n=38). Articles were published across 10 journals, most commonly Statistics in medicine (n=71) and Medical decision making (n=28). The articles had an average of 2.47 authors. Statistics and biostatistics modeling was the most common topic (n=71), followed by artificial intelligence (n=12), and medical errors (n=3), other topics included data mining, diagnosis, bioinformatics, information retrieval, and medical imaging. Our bibliometric analysis illustrated a historical perspective on the progress of scientific research on Medical Informatics. Moreover, the findings of the current study provide an insight on the frequency of citations for top cited articles published in Medical Informatics as well as quality of the works, journals, and the trends steering Medical Informatics.

The Chief Clinical Informatics Officer (CCIO)

PubMed Central

Sengstack, Patricia; Thyvalikakath, Thankam Paul; Poikonen, John; Middleton, Blackford; Payne, Thomas; Lehmann, Christoph U

2016-01-01

Summary Introduction The emerging operational role of the “Chief Clinical Informatics Officer” (CCIO) remains heterogeneous with individuals deriving from a variety of clinical settings and backgrounds. The CCIO is defined in title, responsibility, and scope of practice by local organizations. The term encompasses the more commonly used Chief Medical Informatics Officer (CMIO) and Chief Nursing Informatics Officer (CNIO) as well as the rarely used Chief Pharmacy Informatics Officer (CPIO) and Chief Dental Informatics Officer (CDIO). Background The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) identified a need to better delineate the knowledge, education, skillsets, and operational scope of the CCIO in an attempt to address the challenges surrounding the professional development and the hiring processes of CCIOs. Discussion An AMIA task force developed knowledge, education, and operational skillset recommendations for CCIOs focusing on the common core aspect and describing individual differences based on Clinical Informatics focus. The task force concluded that while the role of the CCIO currently is diverse, a growing body of Clinical Informatics and increasing certification efforts are resulting in increased homogeneity. The task force advised that 1.) To achieve a predictable and desirable skillset, the CCIO must complete clearly defined and specified Clinical Informatics education and training. 2.) Future education and training must reflect the changing body of knowledge and must be guided by changing day-to-day informatics challenges. Conclusion A better defined and specified education and skillset for all CCIO positions will motivate the CCIO workforce and empower them to perform the job of a 21st century CCIO. Formally educated and trained CCIOs will provide a competitive advantage to their respective enterprise by fully utilizing the power of Informatics science. PMID:27081413

An Organizational Informatics Analysis of Colorectal, Breast, and Cervical Cancer Screening Clinical Decision Support and Information Systems within Community Health Centers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carney, Timothy Jay

2012-01-01

A study design has been developed that employs a dual modeling approach to identify factors associated with facility-level cancer screening improvement and how this is mediated by the use of clinical decision support. This dual modeling approach combines principles of (1) Health Informatics, (2) Cancer Prevention and Control, (3) Health Services…

The e-Learning Effectiveness Versus Traditional Learning on a Health Informatics Laboratory Course.

PubMed

Zogas, Spyros; Kolokathi, Aikaterini; Birbas, Konstantinos; Chondrocoukis, Gregory; Mantas, John

2016-01-01

This paper presents a comparison between e-Learning and traditional learning methods of a University course on Health Informatics domain. A pilot research took place among University students who divided on two learning groups, the e-learners and the traditional learners. A comparison of the examinations' marks for the two groups of students was conducted in order to find differences on students' performance. The study results reveal that the students scored almost the same marks independently of the learning procedure. Based on that, it can be assumed that the e-learning courses have the same effectiveness as the in-classroom learning sessions.

Antecedents of the People and Organizational Aspects of Medical Informatics

PubMed Central

Lorenzi, Nancy M.; Riley, Robert T.; Blyth, Andrew J. C.; Southon, Gray; Dixon, Bradley J.

1997-01-01

Abstract People and organizational issues are critical in both implementing medical informatics systems and in dealing with the altered organizations that new systems often create. The people and organizational issues area—like medical informatics itself—is a blend of many disciplines. The academic disciplines of psychology, sociology, social psychology, social anthropology, organizational behavior and organizational development, management, and cognitive sciences are rich with research with significant potential to ease the introduction and on-going use of information technology in today's complex health systems. These academic areas contribute research data and core information for better understanding of such issues as the importance of and processes for creating future direction; managing a complex change process; effective strategies for involving individuals and groups in the informatics effort; and effectively managing the altered organization. This article reviews the behavioral and business referent disciplines that can potentially contribute to improved implementations and on-going management of change in the medical informatics arena. PMID:9067874

Medicalization of global health 2: the medicalization of global mental health

PubMed Central

Clark, Jocalyn

2014-01-01

Once an orphan field, ‘global mental health’ now has wide acknowledgement and prominence on the global health agenda. Increased recognition draws needed attention to individual suffering and the population impacts, but medicalizing global mental health produces a narrow view of the problems and solutions. Early framing by advocates of the global mental health problem emphasised biological disease, linked psychiatry with neurology, and reinforced categories of mental health disorders. Universality of biomedical concepts across culture is assumed in the globalisation of mental health but is strongly disputed by transcultural psychiatrists and anthropologists. Global mental health movement priorities take an individualised view, emphasising treatment and scale-up and neglecting social and structural determinants of health. To meet international targets and address the problem's broad social and cultural dimensions, the global mental health movement and advocates must develop more comprehensive strategies and include more diverse perspectives. PMID:24848660

The role of ethics in information technology decisions: a case-based approach to biomedical informatics education.

PubMed

Anderson, James G

2004-03-18

The purpose of this paper is to propose a case-based approach to instruction regarding ethical issues raised by the use of information technology (IT) in healthcare. These issues are rarely addressed in graduate degree and continuing professional education programs in health informatics. There are important reasons why ethical issues need to be addressed in informatics training. Ethical issues raised by the introduction of information technology affect practice and are ubiquitous. These issues are frequently among the most challenging to young practitioners who are ill prepared to deal with them in practice. First, the paper provides an overview of methods of moral reasoning that can be used to identify and analyze ethical problems in health informatics. Second, we provide a framework for defining cases that involve ethical issues and outline major issues raised by the use of information technology. Specific cases are used as examples of new dilemmas that are posed by the introduction of information technology in healthcare. These cases are used to illustrate how ethics can be integrated with the other elements of informatics training. The cases discussed here reflect day-to-day situations that arise in health settings that require decisions. Third, an approach that can be used to teach ethics in health informatics programs is outlined and illustrated.

Pathology informatics questions and answers from the University of Pittsburgh pathology residency informatics rotation.

PubMed

Harrison, James H

2004-01-01

Effective pathology practice increasingly requires familiarity with concepts in medical informatics that may cover a broad range of topics, for example, traditional clinical information systems, desktop and Internet computer applications, and effective protocols for computer security. To address this need, the University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, Pa) includes a full-time, 3-week rotation in pathology informatics as a required component of pathology residency training. To teach pathology residents general informatics concepts important in pathology practice. We assess the efficacy of the rotation in communicating these concepts using a short-answer examination administered at the end of the rotation. Because the increasing use of computers and the Internet in education and general communications prior to residency training has the potential to communicate key concepts that might not need additional coverage in the rotation, we have also evaluated incoming residents' informatics knowledge using a similar pretest. This article lists 128 questions that cover a range of topics in pathology informatics at a level appropriate for residency training. These questions were used for pretests and posttests in the pathology informatics rotation in the Pathology Residency Program at the University of Pittsburgh for the years 2000 through 2002. With slight modification, the questions are organized here into 15 topic categories within pathology informatics. The answers provided are brief and are meant to orient the reader to the question and suggest the level of detail appropriate in an answer from a pathology resident. A previously published evaluation of the test results revealed that pretest scores did not increase during the 3-year evaluation period, and self-assessed computer skill level correlated with pretest scores, but all pretest scores were low. Posttest scores increased substantially, and posttest scores did not correlate with the self-assessed computer skill level

Job Profiles of Biomedical Informatics Graduates. Results of a Graduate Survey.

PubMed

Ammenwerth, E; Hackl, W O

2015-01-01

Biomedical informatics programs exist in many countries. Some analyses of the skills needed and of recommendations for curricular content for such programs have been published. However, not much is known of the job profiles and job careers of their graduates. To analyse the job profiles and job careers of 175 graduates of the biomedical informatics bachelor and master program of the Tyrolean university UMIT. Survey of all biomedical informatics students who graduated from UMIT between 2001 and 2013. Information is available for 170 graduates. Eight percent of graduates are male. Of all bachelor graduates, 86% started a master program. Of all master graduates, 36% started a PhD. The job profiles are quite diverse: at the time of the survey, 35% of all master graduates worked in the health IT industry, 24% at research institutions, 9% in hospitals, 9% as medical doctors, 17% as informaticians outside the health care sector, and 6% in other areas. Overall, 68% of the graduates are working as biomedical informaticians. The results of the survey indicate a good job situation for the graduates. The job opportunities for biomedical informaticians who graduated with a bachelor or master degree from UMIT seem to be quite good. The majority of graduates are working as biomedical informaticians. A larger number of comparable surveys of graduates from other biomedical informatics programs would help to enhance our knowledge about careers in biomedical informatics.

Integration of Telemedicine in Graduate Medical Informatics Education

PubMed Central

Demiris, George

2003-01-01

An essential part of health informatics is telemedicine, the use of advanced telecommunications technologies to bridge distance and support health care delivery and education. This report discusses the integration of telemedicine into a medical informatics curriculum and, specifically, a framework for a telemedicine course. Within this framework, the objectives and exit competencies are presented and course sections are described: definitions, introduction to technical aspects of telemedicine, evolution of telemedicine and its impact on health care delivery, success and failure factors, and legal and ethical issues. The emphasis is on literature review tools, practical exposure to products and applications, and problem-based learning. Given the rapid advances in the telecommunication field, keeping the course material up to date becomes a challenge for the instructor who at the same time aims to equip students with the knowledge and tools they will need in their future role as decision makers to detect a need for, design, implement, maintain, or evaluate a telemedicine application. PMID:12668696

Online cancer communities as informatics intervention for social support: conceptualization, characterization, and impact.

PubMed

Zhang, Shaodian; O'Carroll Bantum, Erin; Owen, Jason; Bakken, Suzanne; Elhadad, Noémie

2017-03-01

The Internet and social media are revolutionizing how social support is exchanged and perceived, making online health communities (OHCs) one of the most exciting research areas in health informatics. This paper aims to provide a framework for organizing research of OHCs and help identify questions to explore for future informatics research. Based on the framework, we conceptualize OHCs from a social support standpoint and identify variables of interest in characterizing community members. For the sake of this tutorial, we focus our review on online cancer communities. The primary target audience is informaticists interested in understanding ways to characterize OHCs, their members, and the impact of participation, and in creating tools to facilitate outcome research of OHCs. OHC designers and moderators are also among the target audience for this tutorial. The tutorial provides an informatics point of view of online cancer communities, with social support as their leading element. We conceptualize OHCs according to 3 major variables: type of support, source of support, and setting in which the support is exchanged. We summarize current research and synthesize the findings for 2 primary research questions on online cancer communities: (1) the impact of using online social support on an individual's health, and (2) the characteristics of the community, its members, and their interactions. We discuss ways in which future research in informatics in social support and OHCs can ultimately benefit patients. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics: Collaborations on the Road to Genomic Medicine?

PubMed Central

Maojo, Victor; Kulikowski, Casimir A.

2003-01-01

In this report, the authors compare and contrast medical informatics (MI) and bioinformatics (BI) and provide a viewpoint on their complementarities and potential for collaboration in various subfields. The authors compare MI and BI along several dimensions, including: (1) historical development of the disciplines, (2) their scientific foundations, (3) data quality and analysis, (4) integration of knowledge and databases, (5) informatics tools to support practice, (6) informatics methods to support research (signal processing, imaging and vision, and computational modeling, (7) professional and patient continuing education, and (8) education and training. It is pointed out that, while the two disciplines differ in their histories, scientific foundations, and methodologic approaches to research in various areas, they nevertheless share methods and tools, which provides a basis for exchange of experience in their different applications. MI expertise in developing health care applications and the strength of BI in biological “discovery science” complement each other well. The new field of biomedical informatics (BMI) holds great promise for developing informatics methods that will be crucial in the development of genomic medicine. The future of BMI will be influenced strongly by whether significant advances in clinical practice and biomedical research come about from separate efforts in MI and BI, or from emerging, hybrid informatics subdisciplines at their interface. PMID:12925552

Informatics methodologies for evaluation research in the practice setting.

PubMed

Grant, A; Buteau, M; Richards, Y; Delisle, E; Laplante, P; Niyonsenga, T; Xhignesse, M

1998-06-01

A continuing challenge in health informatics and health evaluation is to enable access to the practice of health care so that the determinants of successful care and good health outcomes can be measured, evaluated and analysed. Furthermore the results of the analysis should be available to the health care practitioner or to the patient as might be appropriate, so that he or she can use this information for continual improvement of practice and optimisation of outcomes. In this paper we review two experiences, one in primary care, the FAMUS project, and the other in hospital care, the Autocontrol project. Each project demonstrates an informatics approach for evaluation research in the clinical setting and indicates ways in which useful information can be obtained which with appropriate feed-back and education can be used towards the achievement of better health. Emphasis is given to data collection methods compatible with practice and to high quality information feedback, particularly in the team context, to enable the formulation of strategies for practice improvement.

Globalization and Health

PubMed Central

Martin, Greg

2005-01-01

This debut editorial of Globalization and Health introduces the journal, briefly delineating its goals and objectives and outlines its scope of subject matter. 'Open Access' publishing is expected to become an increasingly important format for peer reviewed academic journals and that Globalization and Health is 'Open Access' is appropriate. The rationale behind starting a journal dedicated to globalization and health is three fold: Firstly: Globalization is reshaping the social geography within which we might strive to create health or prevent disease. The determinants of health – be they a SARS virus or a predilection for fatty foods – have joined us in our global mobility. Driven by economic liberalization and changing technologies, the phenomenon of 'access' is likely to dominate to an increasing extent the unfolding experience of human disease and wellbeing. Secondly: Understanding globalization as a subject matter itself needs certain benchmarks and barometers of its successes and failings. Health is one such barometer. It is a marker of social infrastructure and social welfare and as such can be used to either sound an alarm or give a victory cheer as our interconnectedness hurts and heals the populations we serve. And lastly: In as much as globalization can have an effect on health, it is also true that health and disease has an effect on globalization as exemplified by the existence of quarantine laws and the devastating economic effects of the AIDS pandemic. A balanced view would propose that the effects of globalization on health (and health systems) are neither universally good nor bad, but rather context specific. If the dialogue pertaining to globalization is to be directed or biased in any direction, then it must be this: that we consider the poor first. PMID:15847699

Wellbeing Understanding in High Quality Healthcare Informatics and Telepractice.

PubMed

Fiorini, Rodolfo A; De Giacomo, Piero; L'Abate, Luciano

2016-01-01

The proper use of healthcare informatics technology and multidimensional conceptual clarity are fundamental to create and boost outstanding clinical and telepractice results. Avoiding even terminology ambiguities is mandatory for high quality of care service. For instance, well-being or wellbeing is a different way to write the same concept only, or there is a good deal of ambiguity around the meanings of these terms the way they are written. In personal health, healthcare and healthcare informatics, this kind of ambiguity and lack of conceptual clarity has been called out repeatedly over the past 50 years. It is time to get the right, terse scenario. We present a brief review to develop and achieve ultimate wellbeing understanding for practical high quality healthcare informatics and telepractice application. This article presents an innovative point of view on deeper wellbeing understanding towards its increased clinical effective application.

The Future Impact of Healthcare Services Digitalization on Health Workforce: The Increasing Role of Medical Informatics.

PubMed

Lapão, Luís Velez

2016-01-01

The digital revolution is gradually transforming our society. What about the effects of digitalization and Internet of Things in healthcare? Among researchers two ideas are dominating, opposing each other. These arguments will be explored and analyzed. A mix-method approach combining literature review with the results from a focus group on eHealth impact on employment is used. Several experts from the WHO and from Health Professional Associations contributed for this analysis. Depending on the type of service it will entail reductions or more need of healthcare workers, yet whatever the scenario medical informatics will play an increasing role.

Assessing the current state of dental informatics in saudi arabia: the new frontier.

PubMed

Al-Nasser, Lubna; Al-Ehaideb, Ali; Househ, Mowafa

2014-01-01

Dental informatics is an emerging field that has the potential to transform the dental profession. This study aims to summarize the current applications of dental informatics in Saudi Arabia and to identify the challenges facing expansion of dental informatics in the Saudi context. Search for published articles and specialized forum entries was conducted, as well as interviews with dental professionals familiar with the topic. Results indicated that digital radiography/analysis and administrative management of dental practice are the commonest applications used. Applications in Saudi dental education included: web-based learning systems, computer-based assessments and virtual technology for clinical skills' teaching. Patients' education software, electronic dental/oral health records and the potential of dental research output from electronic databases are yet to be achieved in Saudi Arabia. Challenges facing Saudi dental informatics include: lack of IT infrastructure/support, social acceptability and financial cost. Several initiatives are taken towards the research in dental informatics. Still, more investments are needed to fully achieve the potential of various application of informatics in dental education, practice and research.

Transforming consumer health informatics through a patient work framework: connecting patients to context

PubMed Central

Valdez, Rupa S; Holden, Richard J; Novak, Laurie L; Veinot, Tiffany C

2015-01-01

Designing patient-centered consumer health informatics (CHI) applications requires understanding and creating alignment with patients’ and their family members’ health-related activities, referred to here as ‘patient work’. A patient work approach to CHI draws on medical social science and human factors engineering models and simultaneously attends to patients, their family members, activities, and context. A patient work approach extends existing approaches to CHI design that are responsive to patients’ biomedical realities and personal skills and behaviors. It focuses on the embeddedness of patients’ health management in larger processes and contexts and prioritizes patients’ perspectives on illness management. Future research is required to advance (1) theories of patient work, (2) methods for assessing patient work, and (3) techniques for translating knowledge of patient work into CHI application design. Advancing a patient work approach within CHI is integral to developing and deploying consumer-facing technologies that are integrated with patients’ everyday lives. PMID:25125685

Global health and the global economic crisis.

PubMed

Benatar, Solomon R; Gill, Stephen; Bakker, Isabella

2011-04-01

Although the resources and knowledge for achieving improved global health exist, a new, critical paradigm on health as an aspect of human development, human security, and human rights is needed. Such a shift is required to sufficiently modify and credibly reduce the present dominance of perverse market forces on global health. New scientific discoveries can make wide-ranging contributions to improved health; however, improved global health depends on achieving greater social justice, economic redistribution, and enhanced democratization of production, caring social institutions for essential health care, education, and other public goods. As with the quest for an HIV vaccine, the challenge of improved global health requires an ambitious multidisciplinary research program.

Current Status of Nursing Informatics Education in Korea.

PubMed

Jeon, Eunjoo; Kim, Jeongeun; Park, Hyeoun-Ae; Lee, Ji-Hyun; Kim, Jungha; Jin, Meiling; Ahn, Shinae; Jun, Jooyeon; Song, Healim; On, Jeongah; Jung, Hyesil; Hong, Yeong Joo; Yim, Suran

2016-04-01

This study presents the current status of nursing informatics education, the content covered in nursing informatics courses, the faculty efficacy, and the barriers to and additional supports for teaching nursing informatics in Korea. A set of questionnaires consisting of an 18-item questionnaire for nursing informatics education, a 6-item questionnaire for faculty efficacy, and 2 open-ended questions for barriers and additional supports were sent to 204 nursing schools via email and the postal service. Nursing schools offering nursing informatics were further asked to send their syllabuses. The subjects taught were analyzed using nursing informatics competency categories and other responses were tailed using descriptive statistics. A total of 72 schools (35.3%) responded to the survey, of which 38 reported that they offered nursing informatics courses in their undergraduate nursing programs. Nursing informatics courses at 11 schools were taught by a professor with a degree majoring in nursing informatics. Computer technology was the most frequently taught subject (27 schools), followed by information systems used for practice (25 schools). The faculty efficacy was 3.76 ± 0.86 (out of 5). The most frequently reported barrier to teaching nursing informatics (n = 9) was lack of awareness of the importance of nursing informatics. Training and educational opportunities was the most requested additional support. Nursing informatics education has increased during the last decade in Korea. However, the proportions of faculty with degrees in nursing informatics and number of schools offering nursing informatics courses have not increased much. Thus, a greater focus is needed on training faculty and developing the courses.

The Renewed Promise of Medical Informatics

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Summary The promise of the field of Medical Informatics has been great and its impact has been significant. In 1999, the Yearbook editors of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) - also the authors of the present paper - sought to assess this impact by selecting a number of seminal papers in the field, and asking experts to comment on these articles. In particular, it was requested whether and how the expectations, represented by these papers, had been fulfilled since their publication several decades earlier. Each expert was also invited to comment on what might be expected in the future. In the present paper, these areas are briefly reviewed again. Where did these early papers have an impact and where were they not as successful as originally expected? It should be noted that the extraordinary developments in computer technology observed in the last two decades could not have been foreseen by these early researchers. In closing, some of the possibilities and limitations of research in medical informatics are outlined in the context of a framework that considers six levels of computer applications in medicine and health care. For each level, some predictions are made for the future, concluded with thoughts on fruitful areas for ongoing research in the field. PMID:27199195

The Renewed Promise of Medical Informatics.

PubMed

van Bemmel, J H; McCray, A T

2016-05-20

The promise of the field of Medical Informatics has been great and its impact has been significant. In 1999, the Yearbook editors of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) - also the authors of the present paper - sought to assess this impact by selecting a number of seminal papers in the field, and asking experts to comment on these articles. In particular, it was requested whether and how the expectations, represented by these papers, had been fulfilled since their publication several decades earlier. Each expert was also invited to comment on what might be expected in the future. In the present paper, these areas are briefly reviewed again. Where did these early papers have an impact and where were they not as successful as originally expected? It should be noted that the extraordinary developments in computer technology observed in the last two decades could not have been foreseen by these early researchers. In closing, some of the possibilities and limitations of research in medical informatics are outlined in the context of a framework that considers six levels of computer applications in medicine and health care. For each level, some predictions are made for the future, concluded with thoughts on fruitful areas for ongoing research in the field.

Instantiating informatics in nursing practice for integrated patient centred holistic models of care: a discussion paper.

PubMed

Hussey, Pamela A; Kennedy, Margaret Ann

2016-05-01

A discussion on how informatics knowledge and competencies can enable nursing to instantiate transition to integrated models of care. Costs of traditional models of care are no longer sustainable consequent to the spiralling incidence and costs of chronic illness. The international community looks towards technology-enabled solutions to support a shift towards integrated patient-centred models of care. Discussion paper. A search of the literature was performed dating from 2000-2015 and a purposeful data sample based on relevance to building the discussion was included. The holistic perspective of nursing knowledge can support and advance integrated healthcare models. Informatics skills are key for the profession to play a leadership role in design, implementation and operation of next generation health care. However, evidence suggests that nursing engagement with informatics strategic development for healthcare provision is currently variable. A statistically significant need exists to progress health care towards integrated models of care. Strategic and tactical plans that are robustly pragmatic with nursing insights and expertise are an essential component to achieve effective healthcare provision. To avoid exclusion in the discourse dominated by management and technology experts, nursing leaders must develop and actively promote the advancement of nursing informatics skills. For knowledge in nursing practice to flourish in contemporary health care, nurse leaders will need to incorporate informatics for optimal translation and interpretation. Defined nursing leadership roles informed by informatics are essential to generate concrete solutions sustaining nursing practice in integrated care models. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Making sense of the global health crisis: policy narratives, conflict, and global health governance.

PubMed

Ney, Steven

2012-04-01

Health has become a policy issue of global concern. Worried that the unstructured, polycentric, and pluralist nature of global health governance is undermining the ability to serve emergent global public health interests, some commentators are calling for a more systematic institutional response to the "global health crisis." Yet global health is a complex and uncertain policy issue. This article uses narrative analysis to explore how actors deal with these complexities and how uncertainties affect global health governance. By comparing three narratives in terms of their basic assumptions, the way they define problems as well as the solutions they propose, the analysis shows how the unstructured pluralism of global health policy making creates a wide scope of policy conflict over the global health crisis. This wide scope of conflict enables effective policy-oriented learning about global health issues. The article also shows how exclusionary patterns of cooperation and competition are emerging in health policy making at the global level. These patterns threaten effective learning by risking both polarization of the policy debate and unanticipated consequences of health policy. Avoiding these pitfalls, the analysis suggests, means creating global health governance regimes that promote openness and responsiveness in deliberation about the global health crisis.

Global Health and the Global Economic Crisis

PubMed Central

Gill, Stephen; Bakker, Isabella

2011-01-01

Although the resources and knowledge for achieving improved global health exist, a new, critical paradigm on health as an aspect of human development, human security, and human rights is needed. Such a shift is required to sufficiently modify and credibly reduce the present dominance of perverse market forces on global health. New scientific discoveries can make wide-ranging contributions to improved health; however, improved global health depends on achieving greater social justice, economic redistribution, and enhanced democratization of production, caring social institutions for essential health care, education, and other public goods. As with the quest for an HIV vaccine, the challenge of improved global health requires an ambitious multidisciplinary research program. PMID:21330597

Current Status of Nursing Informatics Education in Korea

PubMed Central

Jeon, Eunjoo; Kim, Jeongeun; Lee, Ji-Hyun; Kim, Jungha; Jin, Meiling; Ahn, Shinae; Jun, Jooyeon; Song, Healim; On, Jeongah; Jung, Hyesil; Hong, Yeong Joo; Yim, Suran

2016-01-01

Objectives This study presents the current status of nursing informatics education, the content covered in nursing informatics courses, the faculty efficacy, and the barriers to and additional supports for teaching nursing informatics in Korea. Methods A set of questionnaires consisting of an 18-item questionnaire for nursing informatics education, a 6-item questionnaire for faculty efficacy, and 2 open-ended questions for barriers and additional supports were sent to 204 nursing schools via email and the postal service. Nursing schools offering nursing informatics were further asked to send their syllabuses. The subjects taught were analyzed using nursing informatics competency categories and other responses were tailed using descriptive statistics. Results A total of 72 schools (35.3%) responded to the survey, of which 38 reported that they offered nursing informatics courses in their undergraduate nursing programs. Nursing informatics courses at 11 schools were taught by a professor with a degree majoring in nursing informatics. Computer technology was the most frequently taught subject (27 schools), followed by information systems used for practice (25 schools). The faculty efficacy was 3.76 ± 0.86 (out of 5). The most frequently reported barrier to teaching nursing informatics (n = 9) was lack of awareness of the importance of nursing informatics. Training and educational opportunities was the most requested additional support. Conclusions Nursing informatics education has increased during the last decade in Korea. However, the proportions of faculty with degrees in nursing informatics and number of schools offering nursing informatics courses have not increased much. Thus, a greater focus is needed on training faculty and developing the courses. PMID:27200224

Informatics in Turkey

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cakir, Serhat

1994-01-01

In the last twenty years the rapid change in the informatics sector has had economic and social impact on private and government activities. The Supreme Council for Science and Technology of Turkey assigned highest priority to the informatics in its meeting in February 1993. With this advice TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey) intends to give a strong impulse to development of a research policy in this field.

A national survey on the current status of informatics residency education in pharmacy.

PubMed

Blash, Anthony; Saltsman, Connie L; Steil, Condit

2017-11-01

Upon completion of their post-graduate training, pharmacy informatics residents need to be prepared to interact with clinical and technology experts in the new healthcare environment. This study describes pharmacy informatics residency programs within the United States. Preliminary information for all pharmacy informatics residency programs was accessed from program webpages. An email was sent out to programs asking them to respond to a six-item questionnaire. This questionnaire was designed to elicit information on attributes of the program, behaviors of the preceptors and residents, and attitudes of the residency directors. Of 22 pharmacy informatics residencies identified, nineteen (86%) participated. Twenty (91%) were second post-graduate year (PGY2) residencies. Ten (45%) were accredited by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), while eight (36%) were candidates for accreditation. Hospital (17/22, 77%) and administrative offices (3/22, 14%) were the predominant training sites for pharmacy informatics residents. Large institutions were the predominant training environment for the pharmacy informatics resident, with 19 of 22 (86%) institutions reporting a licensed bed count of 500 or more. The median (range) number of informatics preceptors at a site was six to eight. Regarding barriers to pharmacy informatics residency education, residency directors reported that residents did not feel prepared based on the limited availability of curricular offerings. In the United States, relatively few residencies are explicitly focused on pharmacy informatics. Most of these are accredited and hospital affiliated, especially with large institutions (>500 beds). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Computer-Assisted Learning Applications in Health Educational Informatics: A Review.

PubMed

Shaikh, Faiq; Inayat, Faisal; Awan, Omer; Santos, Marlise D; Choudhry, Adnan M; Waheed, Abdul; Kajal, Dilkash; Tuli, Sagun

2017-08-10

Computer-assisted learning (CAL) as a health informatics application is a useful tool for medical students in the era of expansive knowledge bases and the increasing need for and the consumption of automated and interactive systems. As the scope and breadth of medical knowledge expand, the need for additional learning outside of lecture hours is becoming increasingly important. CAL can be an impactful adjunct to conventional methods that currently exist in the halls of learning. There is an increasing body of literature that suggests that CAL should be a commonplace and the recommended method of learning for medical students. Factors such as technical issues that hinder the performance of CAL are also evaluated. We conclude by encouraging the use of CAL by medical students as a highly beneficial method of learning that complements and enhances lectures and provides intuitive, interactive modulation of a self-paced curriculum based on the individual's academic abilities.

The New Global Health

PubMed Central

Simone, Patricia M.; Davison, Veronica; Slutsker, Laurence

2013-01-01

Global health reflects the realities of globalization, including worldwide dissemination of infectious and noninfectious public health risks. Global health architecture is complex and better coordination is needed between multiple organizations. Three overlapping themes determine global health action and prioritization: development, security, and public health. These themes play out against a background of demographic change, socioeconomic development, and urbanization. Infectious diseases remain critical factors, but are no longer the major cause of global illness and death. Traditional indicators of public health, such as maternal and infant mortality rates no longer describe the health status of whole societies; this change highlights the need for investment in vital registration and disease-specific reporting. Noncommunicable diseases, injuries, and mental health will require greater attention from the world in the future. The new global health requires broader engagement by health organizations and all countries for the objectives of health equity, access, and coverage as priorities beyond the Millennium Development Goals are set. PMID:23876365

The impact of informatics on nursing education: a review of the literature.

PubMed

Ainsley, Bonnie; Brown, Abbie

2009-05-01

On the basis of a study by the Institute of Medicine, the current health care system is facing several challenges that may be addressed by changes in health professions education. The study focused on integration of five core competencies into health professions education, one of which was informatics. This critical analysis investigates current use of technology and online instructional strategies in nursing education. It also explores the potential impact of integration of informatics into nursing education to increase the cognitive skills of nurses to promote evidence-based nursing. Advantages and disadvantages of using online education in the instruction of nursing students and recommendations for best online practices in nursing education are discussed.

Global health governance as shared health governance.

PubMed

Ruger, Jennifer Prah

2012-07-01

With the exception of key 'proven successes' in global health, the current regime of global health governance can be understood as transnational and national actors pursuing their own interests under a rational actor model of international cooperation, which fails to provide sufficient justification for an obligation to assist in meeting the health needs of others. An ethical commitment to providing all with the ability to be healthy is required. This article develops select components of an alternative model of shared health governance (SHG), which aims to provide a 'road map,' 'focal points' and 'the glue' among various global health actors to better effectuate cooperation on universal ethical principles for an alternative global health equilibrium. Key features of SHG include public moral norms as shared authoritative standards; ethical commitments, shared goals and role allocation; shared sovereignty and constitutional commitments; legitimacy and accountability; country-level attention to international health relations. A framework of social agreement based on 'overlapping consensus' is contrasted against one based on self-interested political bargaining. A global health constitution delineating duties and obligations of global health actors and a global institute of health and medicine for holding actors responsible are proposed. Indicators for empirical assessment of select SHG principles are described. Global health actors, including states, must work together to correct and avert global health injustices through a framework of SHG based on shared ethical commitments.

Advances in health informatics education: educating students at the intersection of health care and information technology.

PubMed

Kushniruk, Andre; Borycki, Elizabeth; Armstrong, Brian; Kuo, Mu-Hsing

2012-01-01

The paper describes the authors' work in the area of health informatics (HI) education involving emerging health information technologies. A range of information technologies promise to modernize health care. Foremost among these are electronic health records (EHRs), which are expected to significantly improve and streamline health care practice. Major national and international efforts are currently underway to increase EHR adoption. However, there have been numerous issues affecting the widespread use of such information technology, ranging from a complex array of technical problems to social issues. This paper describes work in the integration of information technologies directly into the education and training of HI students at both the undergraduate and graduate level. This has included work in (a) the development of Web-based computer tools and platforms to allow students to have hands-on access to the latest technologies and (b) development of interdisciplinary educational models that can be used to guide integrating information technologies into HI education. The paper describes approaches that allow for remote hands-on access by HI students to a range of EHRs and related technology. To date, this work has been applied in HI education in a variety of ways. Several approaches for integration of this essential technology into HI education and training are discussed, along with future directions for the integration of EHR technology into improving and informing the education of future health and HI professionals.

A National Informatics Agenda for Nursing Education and Practice. Report to the Secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice, Rockville, MD.

Nursing informatics is a specialty whose activities center around information management and processing for the nursing profession. The Division of Nursing of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice (NACNEP) recognized a need to identify initiatives that would more…

History of Romanian Medical Informatics: Learning from the Past to Reshape the Future.

PubMed

Mihalas, George I; Stoicu-Tivadar, Lacramioara

2018-04-22

 The paper presents a review of the history of medical informatics in Romania, starting from the pioneering works, relating the present, and foreseeing the future.  Major milestones of the development of this field have not been simply enumerated, but described within the specific socio-political frame, grasping the entire context over the last four decades in Romania. Two main perspectives have been traced: education and training in medical informatics and implementations in healthcare.  Four distinctive historical periods are identified and the major events of each period are described in a critical manner. The history of the Romanian Society of Medical Informatics is presented in a separate chapter. The last section is dedicated to the present state of the field in Romania.  The history of Romanian Medical Informatics spans many years and is rich in content. The Romanian Society of Medical Informatics is mainly the result of the efforts undertaken by an enthusiastic and sound professional community, trying to continue the tradition, to achieve new goals, and to work as an active member of the international biomedical/health informatics community. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart.

A Nursing Informatics Research Agenda for 2008–18: Contextual Influences and Key Components

PubMed Central

Bakken, Suzanne; Stone, Patricia W.; Larson, Elaine L.

2008-01-01

The context for nursing informatics research has changed significantly since the National Institute of Nursing Research-funded Nursing Informatics Research Agenda was published in 1993 and the Delphi study of nursing informatics research priorities reported a decade ago. The authors focus on three specific aspects of context - genomic health care, shifting research paradigms, and social (Web 2.0) technologies - that must be considered in formulating a nursing informatics research agenda. These influences are illustrated using the significant issue of healthcare associated infections (HAI). A nursing informatics research agenda for 2008–18 must expand users of interest to include interdisciplinary researchers; build upon the knowledge gained in nursing concept representation to address genomic and environmental data; guide the reengineering of nursing practice; harness new technologies to empower patients and their caregivers for collaborative knowledge development; develop user-configurable software approaches that support complex data visualization, analysis, and predictive modeling; facilitate the development of middle-range nursing informatics theories; and encourage innovative evaluation methodologies that attend to human-computer interface factors and organizational context. PMID:18922269

Firefighter hearing health: an informatics approach to screening, measurement, and research.

PubMed

Hong, OiSaeng; Monsen, Karen A; Kerr, Madeleine J; Chin, Dal Lae; Lytton, Amy B; Martin, Karen S

2012-10-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of a standardized interface terminology, the Omaha System, with respect to noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). A descriptive, correlational design was employed for this secondary analysis with the data from an ongoing hearing protection intervention study. A total of 346 firefighters were included. First, an evidence-based standardized care plan (EB-SCP) for hearing screening was developed and validated by clinical experts. Second, occupational health records were used to compute Omaha System Knowledge, Behavior, and Status outcomes. Third, research data were mapped to Omaha System rating scales. For Knowledge, the mean score was close to 'adequate' (3.7). For Behavior, the mean score was close to 'rarely appropriate' (2.2). For Status, the mean score was close to 'minimal sign/symptom' (4.4). Significant positive relationships were found between Knowledge and Behavior (Spearman's rho =.13, p =.01), and between Behavior and hearing Status (Spearman's rho =.12, p =.02). Findings support the validity of the new Knowledge, Behavior, and hearing Status. Informatics methods such as the standardized NIHL EB-SCP and outcome data sets will create opportunities for clinical decision support and data exchange across various health care settings, thus supporting population-based hearing health assessments and outcomes.

A core curriculum for clinical fellowship training in pathology informatics

PubMed Central

McClintock, David S.; Levy, Bruce P.; Lane, William J.; Lee, Roy E.; Baron, Jason M.; Klepeis, Veronica E.; Onozato, Maristela L.; Kim, JiYeon; Dighe, Anand S.; Beckwith, Bruce A.; Kuo, Frank; Black-Schaffer, Stephen; Gilbertson, John R.

2012-01-01

Background: In 2007, our healthcare system established a clinical fellowship program in Pathology Informatics. In 2010 a core didactic course was implemented to supplement the fellowship research and operational rotations. In 2011, the course was enhanced by a formal, structured core curriculum and reading list. We present and discuss our rationale and development process for the Core Curriculum and the role it plays in our Pathology Informatics Fellowship Training Program. Materials and Methods: The Core Curriculum for Pathology Informatics was developed, and is maintained, through the combined efforts of our Pathology Informatics Fellows and Faculty. The curriculum was created with a three-tiered structure, consisting of divisions, topics, and subtopics. Primary (required) and suggested readings were selected for each subtopic in the curriculum and incorporated into a curated reading list, which is reviewed and maintained on a regular basis. Results: Our Core Curriculum is composed of four major divisions, 22 topics, and 92 subtopics that cover the wide breadth of Pathology Informatics. The four major divisions include: (1) Information Fundamentals, (2) Information Systems, (3) Workflow and Process, and (4) Governance and Management. A detailed, comprehensive reading list for the curriculum is presented in the Appendix to the manuscript and contains 570 total readings (current as of March 2012). Discussion: The adoption of a formal, core curriculum in a Pathology Informatics fellowship has significant impacts on both fellowship training and the general field of Pathology Informatics itself. For a fellowship, a core curriculum defines a basic, common scope of knowledge that the fellowship expects all of its graduates will know, while at the same time enhancing and broadening the traditional fellowship experience of research and operational rotations. For the field of Pathology Informatics itself, a core curriculum defines to the outside world, including

Global health justice and governance.

PubMed

Ruger, Jennifer Prah

2012-01-01

While there is a growing body of work on moral issues and global governance in the fields of global justice and international relations, little work has connected principles of global health justice with those of global health governance for a theory of global health. Such a theory would enable analysis and evaluation of the current global health system and would ethically and empirically ground proposals for reforming it to more closely align with moral values. Global health governance has been framed as an issue of national security, human security, human rights, and global public goods. The global health governance literature is essentially untethered to a theorized framework to illuminate or evaluate governance. This article ties global health justice and ethics to principles for governing the global health realm, developing a theoretical framework for global and domestic institutions and actors.

The future of global health education: training for equity in global health.

PubMed

Adams, Lisa V; Wagner, Claire M; Nutt, Cameron T; Binagwaho, Agnes

2016-11-21

Among academic institutions in the United States, interest in global health has grown substantially: by the number of students seeking global health opportunities at all stages of training, and by the increase in institutional partnerships and newly established centers, institutes, and initiatives to house global health programs at undergraduate, public health and medical schools. Witnessing this remarkable growth should compel health educators to question whether the training and guidance that we provide to students today is appropriate, and whether it will be applicable in the next decade and beyond. Given that "global health" did not exist as an academic discipline in the United States 20 years ago, what can we expect it will look like 20 years from now and how can we prepare for that future? Most clinicians and trainees today recognize the importance of true partnership and capacity building in both directions for successful international collaborations. The challenge is in the execution of these practices. There are projects around the world where this is occurring and equitable partnerships have been established. Based on our experience and observations of the current landscape of academic global health, we share a perspective on principles of engagement, highlighting instances where partnerships have thrived, and examples of where we, as a global community, have fallen short. As the world moves beyond the charity model of global health (and its colonial roots), it is evident that the issue underlying ethical global health practice is partnership and the pursuit of health equity. Thus, achieving equity in global health education and practice ought to be central to our mission as educators and advisors when preparing trainees for careers in this field. Seeking to eliminate health inequities wherever they are ingrained will reveal the injustices around the globe and in our own cities and towns.

Using a health informatics system to assess effect of a federal cigarette tax increase on readiness to quit among low-income smokers, Louisiana, 2009.

PubMed

Tseng, Tung-Sung; Moody-Thomas, Sarah; Horswell, Ronald; Yi, Yong; Celestin, Michael D; Jones, Krysten D

2014-04-04

Health informatics systems are a proven tool for tobacco control interventions. To address the needs of low-income groups, the Tobacco Control Initiative was established in partnership with the Louisiana State University Health Care Services Division to provide cost-effective tobacco use cessation services through the health informatics system in the state public hospital system. In this study we used a Web-based, result-reporting application to monitor and assess the effect of the 2009 federal cigarette tax increase. We assessed readiness to quit tobacco use before and after a cigarette tax increase among low-income tobacco users who were outpatients in a public hospital system. Overall, there was an increase in readiness to quit, from 22% during the first week of February to 33% during the first week of April, when the tax went into effect. Smokers who were female, 31 or older, African American, and assessed at a clinic visit in April were more likely to report readiness to quit than were men, those aged 30 or younger, those who were white, and those who were assessed at a clinic visit in February. A health informatics system that efficiently tracks trends in readiness to quit can be used in combination with other strategies and thus optimize efforts to control tobacco use. Our data suggest that a cigarette tax increase affects smokers' readiness to quit and provides an opportunity to intervene at the most beneficial time.

Quantum Approach to Informatics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stenholm, Stig; Suominen, Kalle-Antti

2005-08-01

An essential overview of quantum information Information, whether inscribed as a mark on a stone tablet or encoded as a magnetic domain on a hard drive, must be stored in a physical object and thus made subject to the laws of physics. Traditionally, information processing such as computation occurred in a framework governed by laws of classical physics. However, information can also be stored and processed using the states of matter described by non-classical quantum theory. Understanding this quantum information, a fundamentally different type of information, has been a major project of physicists and information theorists in recent years, and recent experimental research has started to yield promising results. Quantum Approach to Informatics fills the need for a concise introduction to this burgeoning new field, offering an intuitive approach for readers in both the physics and information science communities, as well as in related fields. Only a basic background in quantum theory is required, and the text keeps the focus on bringing this theory to bear on contemporary informatics. Instead of proofs and other highly formal structures, detailed examples present the material, making this a uniquely accessible introduction to quantum informatics. Topics covered include: * An introduction to quantum information and the qubit * Concepts and methods of quantum theory important for informatics * The application of information concepts to quantum physics * Quantum information processing and computing * Quantum gates * Error correction using quantum-based methods * Physical realizations of quantum computing circuits A helpful and economical resource for understanding this exciting new application of quantum theory to informatics, Quantum Approach to Informatics provides students and researchers in physics and information science, as well as other interested readers with some scientific background, with an essential overview of the field.

Reusable design: A proposed approach to Public Health Informatics system design

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Since it was first defined in 1995, Public Health Informatics (PHI) has become a recognized discipline, with a research agenda, defined domain-specific competencies and a specialized corpus of technical knowledge. Information systems form a cornerstone of PHI research and implementation, representing significant progress for the nascent field. However, PHI does not advocate or incorporate standard, domain-appropriate design methods for implementing public health information systems. Reusable design is generalized design advice that can be reused in a range of similar contexts. We propose that PHI create and reuse information design knowledge by taking a systems approach that incorporates design methods from the disciplines of Human-Computer Interaction, Interaction Design and other related disciplines. Discussion Although PHI operates in a domain with unique characteristics, many design problems in public health correspond to classic design problems, suggesting that existing design methods and solution approaches are applicable to the design of public health information systems. Among the numerous methodological frameworks used in other disciplines, we identify scenario-based design and participatory design as two widely-employed methodologies that are appropriate for adoption as PHI standards. We make the case that these methods show promise to create reusable design knowledge in PHI. Summary We propose the formalization of a set of standard design methods within PHI that can be used to pursue a strategy of design knowledge creation and reuse for cost-effective, interoperable public health information systems. We suggest that all public health informaticians should be able to use these design methods and the methods should be incorporated into PHI training. PMID:21333000

Refining a self-assessment of informatics competency scale using Mokken scaling analysis.

PubMed

Yoon, Sunmoo; Shaffer, Jonathan A; Bakken, Suzanne

2015-01-01

Healthcare environments are increasingly implementing health information technology (HIT) and those from various professions must be competent to use HIT in meaningful ways. In addition, HIT has been shown to enable interprofessional approaches to health care. The purpose of this article is to describe the refinement of the Self-Assessment of Nursing Informatics Competencies Scale (SANICS) using analytic techniques based upon item response theory (IRT) and discuss its relevance to interprofessional education and practice. In a sample of 604 nursing students, the 93-item version of SANICS was examined using non-parametric IRT. The iterative modeling procedure included 31 steps comprising: (1) assessing scalability, (2) assessing monotonicity, (3) assessing invariant item ordering, and (4) expert input. SANICS was reduced to an 18-item hierarchical scale with excellent reliability. Fundamental skills for team functioning and shared decision making among team members (e.g. "using monitoring systems appropriately," "describing general systems to support clinical care") had the highest level of difficulty, and "demonstrating basic technology skills" had the lowest difficulty level. Most items reflect informatics competencies relevant to all health professionals. Further, the approaches can be applied to construct a new hierarchical scale or refine an existing scale related to informatics attitudes or competencies for various health professions.

Clinical Research Informatics Contributions from 2015.

PubMed

Daniel, C; Choquet, R

2016-11-10

To summarize key contributions to current research in the field of Clinical Research Informatics (CRI) and to select best papers published in 2015. A bibliographic search using a combination of MeSH and free terms search over PubMed on Clinical Research Informatics (CRI) was performed followed by a double-blind review in order to select a list of candidate best papers to be then peer-reviewed by external reviewers. A consensus meeting between the two section editors and the editorial team was finally organized to conclude on the selection of best papers. Among the 579 returned papers published in the past year in the various areas of Clinical Research Informatics (CRI) - i) methods supporting clinical research, ii) data sharing and interoperability, iii) re-use of healthcare data for research, iv) patient recruitment and engagement, v) data privacy, security and regulatory issues and vi) policy and perspectives - the full review process selected four best papers. The first selected paper evaluates the capability of the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) Operational Data Model (ODM) to support the representation of case report forms (in both the design stage and with patient level data) during a complete clinical study lifecycle. The second selected paper describes a prototype for secondary use of electronic health records data captured in non-standardized text. The third selected paper presents a privacy preserving electronic health record linkage tool and the last selected paper describes how big data use in US relies on access to health information governed by varying and often misunderstood legal requirements and ethical considerations. A major trend in the 2015 publications is the analysis of observational, "nonexperimental" information and the potential biases and confounding factors hidden in the data that will have to be carefully taken into account to validate new predictive models. In addiction, researchers have to understand

Clinical Research Informatics for Big Data and Precision Medicine.

PubMed

Weng, C; Kahn, M G

2016-11-10

To reflect on the notable events and significant developments in Clinical Research Informatics (CRI) in the year of 2015 and discuss near-term trends impacting CRI. We selected key publications that highlight not only important recent advances in CRI but also notable events likely to have significant impact on CRI activities over the next few years or longer, and consulted the discussions in relevant scientific communities and an online living textbook for modern clinical trials. We also related the new concepts with old problems to improve the continuity of CRI research. The highlights in CRI in 2015 include the growing adoption of electronic health records (EHR), the rapid development of regional, national, and global clinical data research networks for using EHR data to integrate scalable clinical research with clinical care and generate robust medical evidence. Data quality, integration, and fusion, data access by researchers, study transparency, results reproducibility, and infrastructure sustainability are persistent challenges. The advances in Big Data Analytics and Internet technologies together with the engagement of citizens in sciences are shaping the global clinical research enterprise, which is getting more open and increasingly stakeholder-centered, where stakeholders include patients, clinicians, researchers, and sponsors.

AMIA Board white paper: definition of biomedical informatics and specification of core competencies for graduate education in the discipline

PubMed Central

Kulikowski, Casimir A; Shortliffe, Edward H; Currie, Leanne M; Elkin, Peter L; Hunter, Lawrence E; Johnson, Todd R; Kalet, Ira J; Lenert, Leslie A; Musen, Mark A; Ozbolt, Judy G; Smith, Jack W; Tarczy-Hornoch, Peter Z

2012-01-01

The AMIA biomedical informatics (BMI) core competencies have been designed to support and guide graduate education in BMI, the core scientific discipline underlying the breadth of the field's research, practice, and education. The core definition of BMI adopted by AMIA specifies that BMI is ‘the interdisciplinary field that studies and pursues the effective uses of biomedical data, information, and knowledge for scientific inquiry, problem solving and decision making, motivated by efforts to improve human health.’ Application areas range from bioinformatics to clinical and public health informatics and span the spectrum from the molecular to population levels of health and biomedicine. The shared core informatics competencies of BMI draw on the practical experience of many specific informatics sub-disciplines. The AMIA BMI analysis highlights the central shared set of competencies that should guide curriculum design and that graduate students should be expected to master. PMID:22683918

2018 Informatics Tool Challenge Winners

Cancer.gov

DCEG announced six winners of the 2018 DCEG Informatics Tool Challenge, a competitive funding program that supports innovation to enhance epidemiological methods, data collection, analysis, and other research using modern technology and informatics. Learn more about the winning innovations.

Rethinking the 'global' in global health: a dialectic approach

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background Current definitions of 'global health' lack specificity about the term 'global'. This debate presents and discusses existing definitions of 'global health' and a common problem inherent therein. It aims to provide a way forward towards an understanding of 'global health' while avoiding redundancy. The attention is concentrated on the dialectics of different concepts of 'global' in their application to malnutrition; HIV, tuberculosis & malaria; and maternal mortality. Further attention is payed to normative objectives attached to 'global health' definitions and to paradoxes involved in attempts to define the field. Discussion The manuscript identifies denotations of 'global' as 'worldwide', as 'transcending national boundaries' and as 'holistic'. A fourth concept of 'global' as 'supraterritorial' is presented and defined as 'links between the social determinants of health anywhere in the world'. The rhetorical power of the denotations impacts considerably on the object of 'global health', exemplified in the context of malnutrition; HIV, tuberculosis & malaria; and maternal mortality. The 'global' as 'worldwide', as 'transcending national boundaries' and as 'holistic' house contradictions which can be overcome by the fourth concept of 'global' as 'supraterritorial'. The 'global-local-relationship' inherent in the proposed concept coheres with influential anthropological and sociological views despite the use of different terminology. At the same time, it may be assembled with other views on 'global' or amend apparently conflicting ones. The author argues for detaching normative objectives from 'global health' definitions to avoid so called 'entanglement-problems'. Instead, it is argued that the proposed concept constitutes an un-euphemistical approach to describe the inherently politicised field of 'global health'. Summary While global-as-worldwide and global-as-transcending-national-boundaries are misleading and produce redundancy with public and

Mapping the global health employment market: an analysis of global health jobs.

PubMed

Keralis, Jessica M; Riggin-Pathak, Brianne L; Majeski, Theresa; Pathak, Bogdan A; Foggia, Janine; Cullinen, Kathleen M; Rajagopal, Abbhirami; West, Heidi S

2018-02-27

The number of university global health training programs has grown in recent years. However, there is little research on the needs of the global health profession. We therefore set out to characterize the global health employment market by analyzing global health job vacancies. We collected data from advertised, paid positions posted to web-based job boards, email listservs, and global health organization websites from November 2015 to May 2016. Data on requirements for education, language proficiency, technical expertise, physical location, and experience level were analyzed for all vacancies. Descriptive statistics were calculated for the aforementioned job characteristics. Associations between technical specialty area and requirements for non-English language proficiency and overseas experience were calculated using Chi-square statistics. A qualitative thematic analysis was performed on a subset of vacancies. We analyzed the data from 1007 global health job vacancies from 127 employers. Among private and non-profit sector vacancies, 40% (n = 354) were for technical or subject matter experts, 20% (n = 177) for program directors, and 16% (n = 139) for managers, compared to 9.8% (n = 87) for entry-level and 13.6% (n = 120) for mid-level positions. The most common technical focus area was program or project management, followed by HIV/AIDS and quantitative analysis. Thematic analysis demonstrated a common emphasis on program operations, relations, design and planning, communication, and management. Our analysis shows a demand for candidates with several years of experience with global health programs, particularly program managers/directors and technical experts, with very few entry-level positions accessible to recent graduates of global health training programs. It is unlikely that global health training programs equip graduates to be competitive for the majority of positions that are currently available in this field.

The Interactions Between Clinical Informatics and Bioinformatics

PubMed Central

Altman, Russ B.

2000-01-01

For the past decade, Stanford Medical Informatics has combined clinical informatics and bioinformatics research and training in an explicit way. The interest in applying informatics techniques to both clinical problems and problems in basic science can be traced to the Dendral project in the 1960s. Having bioinformatics and clinical informatics in the same academic unit is still somewhat unusual and can lead to clashes of clinical and basic science cultures. Nevertheless, the benefits of this organization have recently become clear, as the landscape of academic medicine in the next decades has begun to emerge. The author provides examples of technology transfer between clinical informatics and bioinformatics that illustrate how they complement each other. PMID:10984462

A Review of User-Centered Design for Diabetes-Related Consumer Health Informatics Technologies

PubMed Central

LeRouge, Cynthia; Wickramasinghe, Nilmini

2013-01-01

User-centered design (UCD) is well recognized as an effective human factor engineering strategy for designing ease of use in the total customer experience with products and information technology that has been applied specifically to health care information technology systems. We conducted a literature review to analyze the current research regarding the use of UCD methods and principles to support the development or evaluation of diabetes-related consumer health informatics technology (CHIT) initiatives. Findings indicate that (1) UCD activities have been applied across the technology development life cycle stages, (2) there are benefits to incorporating UCD to better inform CHIT development in this area, and (3) the degree of adoption of the UCD process is quite uneven across diabetes CHIT studies. In addition, few to no studies report on methods used across all phases of the life cycle with process detail. To address that void, the Appendix provides an illustrative case study example of UCD techniques across development stages. PMID:23911188

All that Glitters Is not Gold: Consumer Health Informatics and Education in the Era of Social Media and Health Apps. Findings from the Yearbook 2016 Section on Consumer Health Informatics.

PubMed

Fernandez-Luque, L; Staccini, P

2016-11-10

To summarize the state of the art published during the year 2015 in the areas related to consumer health informatics and education with a special emphasis on unintended consequences of applying mobile and social media technologies in that domain. We conducted a systematic review of articles published in PubMed with a predefined set of queries, which lead to the selection of over 700 potential relevant articles. Section editors screened those papers on the title, abstract, and finally complete paper basis, taking into account the papers' relevance for the section topic. The 15 most representative papers were finally selected by consensus between the two section editors and submitted for full review and scoring to external reviewers and the yearbook editors. Based on the final scoring, section editors selected the best five papers. The five best papers can be grouped in two major areas: 1) Digital health literacy and 2) Quality and safety concerns. Regarding health literacy issues of patients with chronic conditions such as asthma, online interventions should rather focus on changing patient beliefs about the disease than on supporting them in the management of their pathology since personally controlled health management systems do not show expected benefits,. Nevertheless, encouraging and training chronic patients for an active online health information-seeking behaviour substantially decreases state anxiety level. Regarding safety and privacy issues, even recommended health-related apps available on mobile phones do not guarantee personal data protection. Furthermore, the analysis indicated that patients undergoing Internet interventions experienced at least one adverse event that might be related to treatment. At least, predictive factors have been identified in order to credit or not a health rumour. Trusting digital and connected health can be achieved if patients, health care professionals, and industrials build a shared model of health data management

Craniofacial imaging informatics and technology development.

PubMed

Vannier, M W

2003-01-01

'Craniofacial imaging informatics' refers to image and related scientific data from the dentomaxillofacial complex, and application of 'informatics techniques' (derived from disciplines such as applied mathematics, computer science and statistics) to understand and organize the information associated with the data. Major trends in information technology determine the progress made in craniofacial imaging and informatics. These trends include industry consolidation, disruptive technologies, Moore's law, electronic atlases and on-line databases. Each of these trends is explained and documented, relative to their influence on craniofacial imaging. Craniofacial imaging is influenced by major trends that affect all medical imaging and related informatics applications. The introduction of cone beam craniofacial computed tomography scanners is an example of a disruptive technology entering the field. An important opportunity lies in the integration of biologic knowledge repositories with craniofacial images. The progress of craniofacial imaging will continue subject to limitations imposed by the underlying technologies, especially imaging informatics. Disruptive technologies will play a major role in the evolution of this field.

osni.info-Using free/libre/open source software to build a virtual international community for open source nursing informatics.

PubMed

Oyri, Karl; Murray, Peter J

2005-12-01

Many health informatics organizations seem to be slow to take up the advantages of dynamic, web-based technologies for providing services to, and interaction with, their members; these are often the very technologies they promote for use within healthcare environments. This paper aims to introduce some of the many free/libre/open source (FLOSS) applications that are now available to develop interactive websites and dynamic online communities as part of the structure of health informatics organizations, and to show how the Open Source Nursing Informatics Working Group (OSNI) of the special interest group in nursing informatics of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA-NI) is using some of these tools to develop an online community of nurse informaticians through their website, at . Some background introduction to FLOSS applications is used for the benefit of those less familiar with such tools, and examples of some of the FLOSS content management systems (CMS) being used by OSNI are described. The experiences of the OSNI will facilitate a knowledgeable nursing contribution to the wider discussions on the applications of FLOSS within health and healthcare, and provides a model that many other groups could adopt.

Mapping the literature of nursing informatics.

PubMed

Guenther, Johanna T

2006-04-01

This study was part of the Medical Library Association's Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's project to map the nursing literature. It identified core journals in nursing informatics and the journals referenced in them and analyzed coverage of those journals in selected indexes. Five core journals were chosen and analyzed for 1996, 1997, and 1998. The references in the core journal articles were examined for type and number of formats cited during the selected time period. Bradford's Law of Scattering divided the journals into frequency zones. The time interval, 1990 to 1998, produced 71% of the references. Internet references could not be tracked by date before 1990. Twelve journals were the most productive, 119 journals were somewhat productive, and 897 journals were the least productive. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association was the most prolific core journal. The 1998 journal references were compared in CINAHL, PubMed/MEDLINE, Science Citation Index, and OCLC Article First. PubMed/MEDLINE had the highest indexing score.

Global Health and Foreign Policy

PubMed Central

Feldbaum, Harley; Lee, Kelley; Michaud, Joshua

2010-01-01

Health has long been intertwined with the foreign policies of states. In recent years, however, global health issues have risen to the highest levels of international politics and have become accepted as legitimate issues in foreign policy. This elevated political priority is in many ways a welcome development for proponents of global health, and it has resulted in increased funding for and attention to select global health issues. However, there has been less examination of the tensions that characterize the relationship between global health and foreign policy and of the potential effects of linking global health efforts with the foreign-policy interests of states. In this paper, the authors review the relationship between global health and foreign policy by examining the roles of health across 4 major components of foreign policy: aid, trade, diplomacy, and national security. For each of these aspects of foreign policy, the authors review current and historical issues and discuss how foreign-policy interests have aided or impeded global health efforts. The increasing relevance of global health to foreign policy holds both opportunities and dangers for global efforts to improve health. PMID:20423936

Global health and foreign policy.

PubMed

Feldbaum, Harley; Lee, Kelley; Michaud, Joshua

2010-01-01

Health has long been intertwined with the foreign policies of states. In recent years, however, global health issues have risen to the highest levels of international politics and have become accepted as legitimate issues in foreign policy. This elevated political priority is in many ways a welcome development for proponents of global health, and it has resulted in increased funding for and attention to select global health issues. However, there has been less examination of the tensions that characterize the relationship between global health and foreign policy and of the potential effects of linking global health efforts with the foreign-policy interests of states. In this paper, the authors review the relationship between global health and foreign policy by examining the roles of health across 4 major components of foreign policy: aid, trade, diplomacy, and national security. For each of these aspects of foreign policy, the authors review current and historical issues and discuss how foreign-policy interests have aided or impeded global health efforts. The increasing relevance of global health to foreign policy holds both opportunities and dangers for global efforts to improve health.

A proposed national research and development agenda for population health informatics: summary recommendations from a national expert workshop

PubMed Central

Lasser, Elyse C; Yasnoff, William A; Loonsk, John; Advani, Aneel; Lehmann, Harold P; Chin, David C; Weiner, Jonathan P

2017-01-01

Objective: The Johns Hopkins Center for Population Health IT hosted a 1-day symposium sponsored by the National Library of Medicine to help develop a national research and development (R&D) agenda for the emerging field of population health informatics (PopHI). Material and Methods: The symposium provided a venue for national experts to brainstorm, identify, discuss, and prioritize the top challenges and opportunities in the PopHI field, as well as R&D areas to address these. Results: This manuscript summarizes the findings of the PopHI symposium. The symposium participants’ recommendations have been categorized into 13 overarching themes, including policy alignment, data governance, sustainability and incentives, and standards/interoperability. Discussion: The proposed consensus-based national agenda for PopHI consisted of 18 priority recommendations grouped into 4 broad goals: (1) Developing a standardized collaborative framework and infrastructure, (2) Advancing technical tools and methods, (3) Developing a scientific evidence and knowledge base, and (4) Developing an appropriate framework for policy, privacy, and sustainability. There was a substantial amount of agreement between all the participants on the challenges and opportunities for PopHI as well as on the actions that needed to be taken to address these. Conclusion: PopHI is a rapidly growing field that has emerged to address the population dimension of the Triple Aim. The proposed PopHI R&D agenda is comprehensive and timely, but should be considered only a starting-point, given that ongoing developments in health policy, population health management, and informatics are very dynamic, suggesting that the agenda will require constant monitoring and updating. PMID:27018264

Towards a Framework Convention on Global Health: a transformative agenda for global health justice.

PubMed

Gostin, Lawrence O; Friedman, Eric A

2013-01-01

Global health inequities cause nearly 20 million deaths annually, mostly among the world's poor. Yet international law currently does little to reduce the massive inequalities that underlie these deaths. This Article offers the first systematic account of the goals and justifications, normative foundations, and potential construction of a proposed new global health treaty, a Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH), grounded in the human right to health. Already endorsed by the United Nations Secretary-General, the FCGH would reimagine global governance for health, offering a new, post-Millennium Development Goals vision. A global coalition of civil society and academics has formed the Joint Action and Learning Initiative on National and Global Responsibilities for Health (JALI) to advance the FCGH.

Health Informatics and Technology for Integrated Elderly Care in the Context of Hong Kong: A Case Study.

PubMed

Chau, Cheuk Wing; Leung, Eman

2017-01-01

The aging population creates tremendous pressure to healthcare. To resolve, scholars recognized the solution to this challenge is integrated care. To facilitate integrated care, health information technologies (HIT) is a critical enabler. This paper will first review how technology enhanced integrated care, and review on the existing literatures in system effective use and the three key external factors that enable HIT implementation. Applying Burton-Jones and Volkoff's contextualized theories of effective use of HIT to understand the role of health informatics and technology in the unique context of Hong Kong, we have conducted a case study research to identify the levers for improving HK integration of care through HIT.

Online cancer communities as informatics intervention for social support: conceptualization, characterization, and impact

PubMed Central

O’Carroll Bantum, Erin; Owen, Jason; Bakken, Suzanne; Elhadad, Noémie

2017-01-01

Objectives: The Internet and social media are revolutionizing how social support is exchanged and perceived, making online health communities (OHCs) one of the most exciting research areas in health informatics. This paper aims to provide a framework for organizing research of OHCs and help identify questions to explore for future informatics research. Based on the framework, we conceptualize OHCs from a social support standpoint and identify variables of interest in characterizing community members. For the sake of this tutorial, we focus our review on online cancer communities. Target audience: The primary target audience is informaticists interested in understanding ways to characterize OHCs, their members, and the impact of participation, and in creating tools to facilitate outcome research of OHCs. OHC designers and moderators are also among the target audience for this tutorial. Scope: The tutorial provides an informatics point of view of online cancer communities, with social support as their leading element. We conceptualize OHCs according to 3 major variables: type of support, source of support, and setting in which the support is exchanged. We summarize current research and synthesize the findings for 2 primary research questions on online cancer communities: (1) the impact of using online social support on an individual's health, and (2) the characteristics of the community, its members, and their interactions. We discuss ways in which future research in informatics in social support and OHCs can ultimately benefit patients. PMID:27402140

[The globalization of health].

PubMed

Franco, A

2003-01-01

In this article diverse aspects of the relationship between health and globalization are explored. Different dimensions of globalization (economic, technological, cultural and political) are considered. Aspects of its effects on health (epidemiological, ethical and environmental), as well as its relationship with public health, power distribution and equity are discussed. Data that demonstrate the globalization of risks and of diseases, due to the current model of international relations and geographical mobility, are analyzed. The article defends the globalization of health and integrates renewed concepts and scientific advances in public health with politics, social strategies and new organizational forms of the practice of public health. Finally, we discuss the opportunities that have been provided by globalization since the middle of the last century for redefining world government and for developing local movements, based on solidarity and a new concept of politics, which could favor the universalization of health.

Latvian Education Informatization System LIIS

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bicevskis, Janis; Andzans, Agnis; Ikaunieks, Evalds; Medvedis, Inga; Straujums, Uldis; Vezis, Viesturs

2004-01-01

The Latvian Education Informatization System LIIS project covers the whole information grid: education content, management, information services, infrastructure and user training at several levels--schools, school boards and Ministry of Education and Science. Informatization is the maintained process of creating the technical, economical and…

Transforming global health with mobile technologies and social enterprises: global health and innovation conference.

PubMed

Kayingo, Gerald

2012-09-01

More than 2,000 people convened for the ninth annual Global Health and Innovation Conference at Yale University on April 21-22, 2012. Participants discussed the latest innovations, ideas in development, lessons learned, opportunities and challenges in global health activities. Several themes emerged, including the important role of frontline workers, strengthening health systems, leveraging social media, and sustainable and impact-driven philanthropy. Overall, the major outcome of the conference was the increased awareness of the potential of mobile technologies and social enterprises in transforming global health. Experts warned that donations and technological advances alone will not transform global health unless there are strong functioning health infrastructures and improved workforce. It was noted that there is a critical need for an integrated systems approach to global health problems and a need for scaling up promising pilot projects. Lack of funding, accountability, and sustainability were identified as major challenges in global health.

Open Access Publishing in the Field of Medical Informatics.

PubMed

Kuballa, Stefanie

2017-05-01

The open access paradigm has become an important approach in today's information and communication society. Funders and governments in different countries stipulate open access publications of funded research results. Medical informatics as part of the science, technology and medicine disciplines benefits from many research funds, such as National Institutes of Health in the US, Wellcome Trust in UK, German Research Foundation in Germany and many more. In this study an overview of the current open access programs and conditions of major journals in the field of medical informatics is presented. It was investigated whether there are suitable options and how they are shaped. Therefore all journals in Thomson Reuters Web of Science that were listed in the subject category "Medical Informatics" in 2014 were examined. An Internet research was conducted by investigating the journals' websites. It was reviewed whether journals offer an open access option with a subsequent check of conditions as for example the type of open access, the fees and the licensing. As a result all journals in the field of medical informatics that had an impact factor in 2014 offer an open access option. A predominantly consistent pricing range was determined with an average fee of 2.248 € and a median fee of 2.207 €. The height of a journals' open access fee did not correlate with the height of its Impact Factor. Hence, medical informatics journals have recognized the trend of open access publishing, though the vast majority of them are working with the hybrid method. Hybrid open access may however lead to problems in questions of double dipping and the often stipulated gold open access.

Nursing informatics, outcomes, and quality improvement.

PubMed

Charters, Kathleen G

2003-08-01

Nursing informatics actively supports nursing by providing standard language systems, databases, decision support, readily accessible research results, and technology assessments. Through normalized datasets spanning an entire enterprise or other large demographic, nursing informatics tools support improvement of healthcare by answering questions about patient outcomes and quality improvement on an enterprise scale, and by providing documentation for business process definition, business process engineering, and strategic planning. Nursing informatics tools provide a way for advanced practice nurses to examine their practice and the effect of their actions on patient outcomes. Analysis of patient outcomes may lead to initiatives for quality improvement. Supported by nursing informatics tools, successful advance practice nurses leverage their quality improvement initiatives against the enterprise strategic plan to gain leadership support and resources.

Comparative effectiveness research and medical informatics.

PubMed

D'Avolio, Leonard W; Farwell, Wildon R; Fiore, Louis D

2010-12-01

As is the case for environmental, ecological, astronomical, and other sciences, medical practice and research finds itself in a tsunami of data. This data deluge, due primarily to the introduction of digitalization in routine medical care and medical research, affords the opportunity for improved patient care and scientific discovery. Medical informatics is the subdiscipline of medicine created to make greater use of information in order to improve healthcare. The 4 areas of medical informatics research (information access, structure, analysis, and interaction) are used as a framework to discuss the overlap in information needs of comparative effectiveness research and potential contributions of medical informatics. Examples of progress from the medical informatics literature and the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System are provided. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Global Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology Network (GIDEON): a world wide Web-based program for diagnosis and informatics in infectious diseases.

PubMed

Edberg, Stephen C

2005-01-01

The Global Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology Network (GIDEON) (http://www.gideononline.com) consists of 4 modules. The first is designed to generate a ranked differential diagnosis list for any infectious diseases scenario in any of 220 countries. The second follows the country-specific epidemiology of 337 individual diseases. The third presents a comprehensive encyclopedia of 308 generic anti-infective drugs and vaccines, including a listing of >9500 trade names. The fourth generates a ranked identification list based on the phenotype of bacteria, mycobacteria, and yeasts. The program performs well and serves as a useful paradigm for World Wide Web-based informatics. GIDEON is an eclectic program that can serve the needs of clinicians, epidemiologists, and microbiologists working in the fields of infectious diseases and geographic medicine.

Creating a pipeline of talent for informatics: STEM initiative for high school students in computer science, biology, and biomedical informatics

PubMed Central

Dutta-Moscato, Joyeeta; Gopalakrishnan, Vanathi; Lotze, Michael T.; Becich, Michael J.

2014-01-01

This editorial provides insights into how informatics can attract highly trained students by involving them in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) training at the high school level and continuing to provide mentorship and research opportunities through the formative years of their education. Our central premise is that the trajectory necessary to be expert in the emergent fields in front of them requires acceleration at an early time point. Both pathology (and biomedical) informatics are new disciplines which would benefit from involvement by students at an early stage of their education. In 2009, Michael T Lotze MD, Kirsten Livesey (then a medical student, now a medical resident at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)), Richard Hersheberger, PhD (Currently, Dean at Roswell Park), and Megan Seippel, MS (the administrator) launched the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) Summer Academy to bring high school students for an 8 week summer academy focused on Cancer Biology. Initially, pathology and biomedical informatics were involved only in the classroom component of the UPCI Summer Academy. In 2011, due to popular interest, an informatics track called Computer Science, Biology and Biomedical Informatics (CoSBBI) was launched. CoSBBI currently acts as a feeder program for the undergraduate degree program in bioinformatics at the University of Pittsburgh, which is a joint degree offered by the Departments of Biology and Computer Science. We believe training in bioinformatics is the best foundation for students interested in future careers in pathology informatics or biomedical informatics. We describe our approach to the recruitment, training and research mentoring of high school students to create a pipeline of exceptionally well-trained applicants for both the disciplines of pathology informatics and biomedical informatics. We emphasize here how mentoring of high school students in pathology informatics and biomedical informatics

Creating a pipeline of talent for informatics: STEM initiative for high school students in computer science, biology, and biomedical informatics.

PubMed

Dutta-Moscato, Joyeeta; Gopalakrishnan, Vanathi; Lotze, Michael T; Becich, Michael J

2014-01-01

This editorial provides insights into how informatics can attract highly trained students by involving them in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) training at the high school level and continuing to provide mentorship and research opportunities through the formative years of their education. Our central premise is that the trajectory necessary to be expert in the emergent fields in front of them requires acceleration at an early time point. Both pathology (and biomedical) informatics are new disciplines which would benefit from involvement by students at an early stage of their education. In 2009, Michael T Lotze MD, Kirsten Livesey (then a medical student, now a medical resident at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)), Richard Hersheberger, PhD (Currently, Dean at Roswell Park), and Megan Seippel, MS (the administrator) launched the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) Summer Academy to bring high school students for an 8 week summer academy focused on Cancer Biology. Initially, pathology and biomedical informatics were involved only in the classroom component of the UPCI Summer Academy. In 2011, due to popular interest, an informatics track called Computer Science, Biology and Biomedical Informatics (CoSBBI) was launched. CoSBBI currently acts as a feeder program for the undergraduate degree program in bioinformatics at the University of Pittsburgh, which is a joint degree offered by the Departments of Biology and Computer Science. We believe training in bioinformatics is the best foundation for students interested in future careers in pathology informatics or biomedical informatics. We describe our approach to the recruitment, training and research mentoring of high school students to create a pipeline of exceptionally well-trained applicants for both the disciplines of pathology informatics and biomedical informatics. We emphasize here how mentoring of high school students in pathology informatics and biomedical informatics

Globalization, global health, and access to healthcare.

PubMed

Collins, Téa

2003-01-01

It is now commonly realized that the globalization of the world economy is shaping the patterns of global health, and that associated morbidity and mortality is affecting countries' ability to achieve economic growth. The globalization of public health has important implications for access to essential healthcare. The rise of inequalities among and within countries negatively affects access to healthcare. Poor people use healthcare services less frequently when sick than do the rich. The negative impact of globalization on access to healthcare is particularly well demonstrated in countries of transitional economies. No longer protected by a centralized health sector that provided free universal access to services for everyone, large segments of the populations in the transition period found themselves denied even the most basic medical services. Only countries where regulatory institutions are strong, domestic markets are competitive and social safety nets are in place, have a good chance to enjoy the health benefits of globalization.

Clinical Informatics Fellowship Programs: In Search of a Viable Financial Model: An open letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

PubMed

Lehmann, C U; Longhurst, C A; Hersh, W; Mohan, V; Levy, B P; Embi, P J; Finnell, J T; Turner, A M; Martin, R; Williamson, J; Munger, B

2015-01-01

In the US, the new subspecialty of Clinical Informatics focuses on systems-level improvements in care delivery through the use of health information technology (HIT), data analytics, clinical decision support, data visualization and related tools. Clinical informatics is one of the first subspecialties in medicine open to physicians trained in any primary specialty. Clinical Informatics benefits patients and payers such as Medicare and Medicaid through its potential to reduce errors, increase safety, reduce costs, and improve care coordination and efficiency. Even though Clinical Informatics benefits patients and payers, because GME funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has not grown at the same rate as training programs, the majority of the cost of training new Clinical Informaticians is currently paid by academic health science centers, which is unsustainable. To maintain the value of HIT investments by the government and health care organizations, we must train sufficient leaders in Clinical Informatics. In the best interest of patients, payers, and the US society, it is therefore critical to find viable financial models for Clinical Informatics fellowship programs. To support the development of adequate training programs in Clinical Informatics, we request that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issue clarifying guidance that would allow accredited ACGME institutions to bill for clinical services delivered by fellows at the fellowship program site within their primary specialty.

The role of social media for patients and consumer health. Contribution of the IMIA Consumer Health Informatics Working Group.

PubMed

Lau, A Y S; Siek, K A; Fernandez-Luque, L; Tange, H; Chhanabhai, P; Li, S Y W; Elkin, P L; Arjabi, A; Walczowski, L; Ang, C S; Eysenbach, G

2011-01-01

: To provide an overview on social media for consumers and patients in areas of health behaviours and outcomes. A directed review of recent literature. : We discuss the limitations and challenges of social media, ranging from social network sites (SNSs), computer games, mobile applications, to online videos. An overview of current users of social media (Generation Y), and potential users (such as low socioeconomic status and the chronically ill populations) is also presented. Future directions in social media research are also discussed. : We encourage the health informatics community to consider the socioeconomic class, age, culture, and literacy level of their populations, and select an appropriate medium and platform when designing social networked interventions for health. Little is known about the impact of second-hand experiences faciliated by social media, nor the quality and safety of social networks on health. Methodologies and theories from human computer interaction, human factors engineering and psychology may help guide the challenges in designing and evaluating social networked interventions for health. Further, by analysing how people search and navigate social media for health purposes, infodemiology and infoveillance are promising areas of research that should provide valuable insights on present and emergening health behaviours on a population scale.

[Informatics and health, from digitization to information and communication technologies (TIC)].

PubMed

Cabanis, Emmanuel Alain; de Kervasdoué, Jean

2014-01-01

Integrating the progress that has been made on a daily basis since it was jointly commissioned in 2013 by the French National Academy of Medicine (Biotechnology Committee XX, Prof Emmanuel-Alain Cabanis) and the Technologies Academy (Pr Jean de Kervasdoué), this report, covering such a vast subject, can only represent one step in a long process. Summarized here in a volume compatible with the Bulletin, it makes reference to the full report (52 pages ; 22 pages of text, 4 pages of references, a 20-page glossary for physicians, plus 522 figures spanning 6 pages), which is available on the Academy's website. The six chapters first define "health" (WHO) and "informatics" and provide a brief history. The first chapter, on technologies, is divided into "bad" news (cybercrime, ecological risks) and advances relevant to health. The next four chapters describe the contribution of digitization to patient management, ranging from "fragile" individuals (from the gamete to old age and dependency) to healthy subjects trained to work in hostile situations (scuba diving to space exploration), and finally research. The last chapter proposes 7 areas for progress: expansion of the national imaging and communications platforms, stimulation of the medical robotics industry, extension of telemedicine to all medical and surgical specialties, support for drug dispensing and therapeutic education, and foundation of a European portal for m-health certification, research prioritization according to multiyear health plans, and reinforcement of mathematic education, starting in primary school (see: "La main à la pâte" ("Going hands-on").

Molecular Pathology Informatics.

PubMed

Roy, Somak

2015-06-01

Molecular informatics (MI) is an evolving discipline that will support the dynamic landscape of molecular pathology and personalized medicine. MI provides a fertile ground for development of clinical solutions to bridge the gap between clinical informatics and bioinformatics. Rapid adoption of next generation sequencing (NGS) in the clinical arena has triggered major endeavors in MI that are expected to bring a paradigm shift in the practice of pathology. This brief review presents a broad overview of various aspects of MI, particularly in the context of NGS based testing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An overview of medical informatics education in China.

PubMed

Hu, Dehua; Sun, Zhenling; Li, Houqing

2013-05-01

To outline the history of medical informatics education in the People's Republic of China, systematically analyze the current status of medical informatics education at different academic levels (bachelor's, master's, and doctoral), and suggest reasonable strategies for the further development of the field in China. The development of medical informatics education was divided into three stages, defined by changes in the specialty's name. Systematic searches of websites for material related to the specialty of medical informatics were then conducted. For undergraduate education, the websites surveyed included the website of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (MOE) and those of universities or colleges identified using the baidu.com search engine. For postgraduate education, the websites included China's Graduate Admissions Information Network (CGAIN) and the websites of the universities or their schools or faculties. Specialties were selected on the basis of three criteria: (1) for undergraduate education, the name of specialty or program was medical informatics or medical information or information management and information system; for postgraduate education, medical informatics or medical information; (2) the specialty was approved and listed by the MOE; (3) the specialty was set up by a medical college or medical university, or a school of medicine of a comprehensive university. The information abstracted from the websites included the year of program approval and listing, the university/college, discipline catalog, discipline, specialty, specialty code, objectives, and main courses. A total of 55 program offerings for undergraduate education, 27 for master's-level education, and 5 for PhD-level education in medical informatics were identified and assessed in China. The results indicate that medical informatics education, a specialty rooted in medical library and information science education in China, has grown significantly in that

What makes a good clinical app? Introducing the RCP Health Informatics Unit checklist.

PubMed

Wyatt, Jeremy C; Thimbleby, Harold; Rastall, Paul; Hoogewerf, Jan; Wooldridge, Darren; Williams, John

2015-12-01

Doctors increasingly rely on medical apps running on smart phones or tablet computers to support their work. However, these apps vary hugely in the quality of their data input screens, internal data processing, the methods used to handle sensitive patient data and how they communicate their output to the user. Inspired by Donabedian's approach to assessing quality and the principles of good user interface design, the Royal College of Physicians' Health Informatics Unit has developed and piloted an 18-item checklist to help clinicians assess the structure, functions and impact of medical apps. Use of this checklist should help clinicians to feel more confident about using medical apps themselves, about recommending them to their staff or prescribing them for patients. © Royal College of Physicians 2015. All rights reserved.

The Global in Global Health is Not a Given.

PubMed

Mason, Paul H; Kerridge, Ian; Lipworth, Wendy

2017-04-01

AbstractThe process of globalization is commonly espoused as a means for promoting global health. Efforts to "go global" can, however, easily go awry as a result of lack of attention to local social, economic, and political contexts and/or as a result of commercial and political imperatives that allow local populations to be exploited. Critical analysis of the processes of globalization is necessary to better understand the local particularities of global projects and confront challenges more transparently. We illustrate the potential adverse impacts of globalization in the global health setting, through examination of international tuberculosis control, global mental health, and the establishment of transnational biobank networks.

Informatics for patient safety: a nursing research perspective.

PubMed

Bakken, Suzanne

2006-01-01

In Crossing the Quality Chasm, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Quality of Health Care in America identified the critical role of information technology in designing a health system that produces care that is "safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable" (Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, 2001, p. 164). A subsequent IOM report contends that improved information systems are essential to a new health care delivery system that "both prevents errors and learns from them when they occur" (Committee on Data Standards for Patient Safety, 2004, p. 1). This review specifically highlights the role of informatics processes and information technology in promoting patient safety and summarizes relevant nursing research. First, the components of an informatics infrastructure for patient safety are described within the context of the national framework for delivering consumer-centric and information-rich health care and using the National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII) (Thompson & Brailer, 2004). Second, relevant nursing research is summarized; this includes research studies that contributed to the development of selected infrastructure components as well as studies specifically focused on patient safety. Third, knowledge gaps and opportunities for nursing research are identified for each main topic. The health information technologies deployed as part of the national framework must support nursing practice in a manner that enables prevention of medical errors and promotion of patient safety and contributes to the development of practice-based nursing knowledge as well as best practices for patient safety. The seminal work that has been completed to date is necessary, but not sufficient, to achieve this objective.

Medicalization of global health 1: has the global health agenda become too medicalized?

PubMed

Clark, Jocalyn

2014-01-01

Medicalization analyses have roots in sociology and have critical usefulness for understanding contemporary health issues including the 'post-2015 global health agenda'. Medicalization is more complex than just 'disease mongering'--it is a process and not only an outcome; has both positive and negative elements; can be partial rather than complete; and is often sought or challenged by patients or others in the health field. It is understood to be expanding rather than contracting, plays out at the level of interaction or of definitions and agenda-setting, and is said to be largely harmful and costly to individuals and societies. Medicalization of global health issues would overemphasise the role of health care to health; define and frame issues in relation to disease, treatment strategies, and individual behaviour; promote the role of medical professionals and models of care; find support in industry or other advocates of technologies and pharmaceuticals; and discount social contexts, causes, and solutions. In subsequent articles, three case studies are explored, which critically examine predominant issues on the global health agenda: global mental health, non-communicable disease, and universal health coverage. A medicalization lens helps uncover areas where the global health agenda and its framing of problems are shifted toward medical and technical solutions, neglecting necessary social, community, or political action.

Global Health Justice and the Right to Health.

PubMed

Widdows, Heather

2015-12-01

This paper reflects on Lawrence Gostin's Global Health Law. In so doing seeks to contribute to the debate about how global health justice is best conceived and achieved. Gostin's vision of global health is one which is communal and in which health is directly connected to other justice concerns. Hence the need for health-in-all policies, and the importance of focusing on basic and communal health goods rather than high-tech and individual ones. This paper asks whether this broadly communal vision of global health justice is best served by making the right to health central to the project. It explores a number of reasons why rights-talk might be problematic in the context of health justice; namely, structurally, rights are individual and state-centric and politically, they are oppositional and better suited to single-issue campaigns. The paper argues that stripping rights of their individualist assumptions is difficult, and perhaps impossible, and hence alternative approaches, such as those Gostin endorses based on global public goods and health security, might deliver much, perhaps most, global health goods, while avoiding the problems of rights-talk.

Medical informatics across Europe: analysis of medical informatics scientific output in 33 European countries.

PubMed

Polašek, Ozren; Kern, Josipa

2012-01-01

To investigate the medical informatics scientific output in 33 European countries. Medical Subject Heading term "medical informatics" was used to identify all relevant articles published in 1998-2007 and indexed in the Medline database. The number of articles was adjusted to the population size of each included country in order to obtain the rates per million inhabitants. A total of 28,604 articles were identified. The highest number per million inhabitants was found for Switzerland and the lowest for Albania. Overall, European Union member states had higher output than non-member states, gross domestic product was strongly associated with the scientific output in the field of medical informatics (r = 0.88, p < 0.001). While most countries had significant increase in the scientific output during the observed period, an adjustment to the European average output trend suggested that Lithuania, Portugal, Serbia and Spain had a greater increase than the rest of Europe. The results suggest large disparities across Europe. Further development of medical informatics as a profession and a clear recognition of the discipline are needed to reduce these disparities and propel further increase in research productivity.

Clinical Research Informatics for Big Data and Precision Medicine

PubMed Central

Kahn, M. G.

2016-01-01

Summary Objectives To reflect on the notable events and significant developments in Clinical Research Informatics (CRI) in the year of 2015 and discuss near-term trends impacting CRI. Methods We selected key publications that highlight not only important recent advances in CRI but also notable events likely to have significant impact on CRI activities over the next few years or longer, and consulted the discussions in relevant scientific communities and an online living textbook for modern clinical trials. We also related the new concepts with old problems to improve the continuity of CRI research. Results The highlights in CRI in 2015 include the growing adoption of electronic health records (EHR), the rapid development of regional, national, and global clinical data research networks for using EHR data to integrate scalable clinical research with clinical care and generate robust medical evidence. Data quality, integration, and fusion, data access by researchers, study transparency, results reproducibility, and infrastructure sustainability are persistent challenges. Conclusion The advances in Big Data Analytics and Internet technologies together with the engagement of citizens in sciences are shaping the global clinical research enterprise, which is getting more open and increasingly stakeholder-centered, where stakeholders include patients, clinicians, researchers, and sponsors. PMID:27830253

Impacts of globalization in health.

PubMed

Ioannou, Andriani; Mechili, Aggelos; Kolokathi, Aikaterini; Diomidous, Marianna

2013-01-01

Globalization is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture. Globalization describes the interplay of macro-social forces across cultures. The purpose of this study is a systematic review of the bibliography on the impacts of globalization in health. The consequences of globalization on health present a twofold dimension, on the one hand affects the health of the population and on the other hand organization and functioning of health systems. As a result of globalization, there has been an undeniable economic development and technological progress to support the level of health around the world, improving the health status of certain populations with a beneficial increase in life expectancy. In many aspects globalization is good but there are many problems too.

Global oral health in the framework of the Global Charter for the Public's Health.

PubMed

Lee, Hyewon; Lomazzi, Marta; Lee, Aimee; Bedi, Raman

2018-05-01

Oral diseases are a neglected epidemic affecting all ages globally and can substantially impact overall health and well-being. Even though most oral diseases are preventable and share major risk factors with other non-communicable diseases, integration of oral health into public health systems is still limited in both clinical and health policy perspectives. This Viewpoint aims to highlight oral health from a global health perspective, calling for all public health leaders to advocate for oral health of all. We strongly recommend oral health as an essential part of public health policy and oral health-related activities to be aligned with the Global Charter for the Public's Health Framework.

Global Health Solidarity

PubMed Central

West-Oram, Peter G. N.; Buyx, Alena

2017-01-01

Abstract For much of the 20th century, vulnerability to deprivations of health has often been defined by geographical and economic factors. Those in wealthy, usually ‘Northern’ and ‘Western’, parts of the world have benefited from infrastructures, and accidents of geography and climate, which insulate them from many serious threats to health. Conversely, poorer people are typically exposed to more threats to health, and have lesser access to the infrastructures needed to safeguard them against the worst consequences of such exposure. However, in recent years the increasingly globalized nature of the world’s economy, society and culture, combined with anthropogenic climate change and the evolution of antibiotic resistance, has begun to shift the boundaries that previously defined the categories of person threatened by many exogenous threats to health. In doing so, these factors expose both new and forgotten similarities between persons, and highlight the need for global cooperative responses to the existential threats posed by climate change and the evolution of antimicrobial resistance. In this article, we argue that these emerging health threats, in demonstrating the similarities that exist between even distant persons, provides a catalyst for global solidarity, which justifies, and provides motivation for, the establishment of solidaristic, cooperative global health infrastructures. PMID:29731808

Global Health Solidarity.

PubMed

West-Oram, Peter G N; Buyx, Alena

2017-07-01

For much of the 20th century, vulnerability to deprivations of health has often been defined by geographical and economic factors. Those in wealthy, usually 'Northern' and 'Western', parts of the world have benefited from infrastructures, and accidents of geography and climate, which insulate them from many serious threats to health. Conversely, poorer people are typically exposed to more threats to health, and have lesser access to the infrastructures needed to safeguard them against the worst consequences of such exposure. However, in recent years the increasingly globalized nature of the world's economy, society and culture, combined with anthropogenic climate change and the evolution of antibiotic resistance, has begun to shift the boundaries that previously defined the categories of person threatened by many exogenous threats to health. In doing so, these factors expose both new and forgotten similarities between persons, and highlight the need for global cooperative responses to the existential threats posed by climate change and the evolution of antimicrobial resistance. In this article, we argue that these emerging health threats, in demonstrating the similarities that exist between even distant persons, provides a catalyst for global solidarity, which justifies, and provides motivation for, the establishment of solidaristic, cooperative global health infrastructures.

The Global in Global Health is Not a Given

PubMed Central

Mason, Paul H.; Kerridge, Ian; Lipworth, Wendy

2017-01-01

The process of globalization is commonly espoused as a means for promoting global health. Efforts to “go global” can, however, easily go awry as a result of lack of attention to local social, economic, and political contexts and/or as a result of commercial and political imperatives that allow local populations to be exploited. Critical analysis of the processes of globalization is necessary to better understand the local particularities of global projects and confront challenges more transparently. We illustrate the potential adverse impacts of globalization in the global health setting, through examination of international tuberculosis control, global mental health, and the establishment of transnational biobank networks. PMID:28138044

Mapping the literature of nursing informatics

PubMed Central

Guenther, Johanna T.

2006-01-01

Objective: This study was part of the Medical Library Association's Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's project to map the nursing literature. It identified core journals in nursing informatics and the journals referenced in them and analyzed coverage of those journals in selected indexes. Method: Five core journals were chosen and analyzed for 1996, 1997, and 1998. The references in the core journal articles were examined for type and number of formats cited during the selected time period. Bradford's Law of Scattering divided the journals into frequency zones. Results: The time interval, 1990 to 1998, produced 71% of the references. Internet references could not be tracked by date before 1990. Twelve journals were the most productive, 119 journals were somewhat productive, and 897 journals were the least productive. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association was the most prolific core journal. The 1998 journal references were compared in CINAHL, PubMed/MEDLINE, Science Citation Index, and OCLC Article First. PubMed/MEDLINE had the highest indexing score. PMID:16710469

Modeling & Informatics at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated: our philosophy for sustained impact

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McGaughey, Georgia; Patrick Walters, W.

2017-03-01

Molecular modelers and informaticians have the unique opportunity to integrate cross-functional data using a myriad of tools, methods and visuals to generate information. Using their drug discovery expertise, information is transformed to knowledge that impacts drug discovery. These insights are often times formulated locally and then applied more broadly, which influence the discovery of new medicines. This is particularly true in an organization where the members are exposed to projects throughout an organization, such as in the case of the global Modeling & Informatics group at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. From its inception, Vertex has been a leader in the development and use of computational methods for drug discovery. In this paper, we describe the Modeling & Informatics group at Vertex and the underlying philosophy, which has driven this team to sustain impact on the discovery of first-in-class transformative medicines.

Perceptions and Experiences of Baccalaureate Nursing Program Leaders Related to Nursing Informatics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larson, Lisa R.

2017-01-01

Nursing program leadership for integrating nursing informatics (NI) into curricula is essential. NI is a specialty that combines nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage health information and improve patient health outcomes (American Nurses Association, 2008). Approximately 98,000 patient deaths per year occur due to…

The Asia Pacific Association for Medical Informatics (APAMI) and World Organisation of Family Doctors (WONCA) Consortium on General and Family Practice Informatics--a statement of intent.

PubMed

Liaw, S T; Kidd, M; Cesnik, B; Lun, K C; Goh, L G; Yoo, T; Wun, Y T

1998-01-01

This paper describes the establishment of a consortium to advance health and medical informatics in general/family practice in the Asia Pacific Region. The objectives, current activities currently taking place in the region and key activities planned will be outlined.

Where theory and practice of global health intersect: the developmental history of a Canadian global health initiative.

PubMed

Daibes, Ibrahim; Sridharan, Sanjeev

2014-01-01

This paper examines the scope of practice of global health, drawing on the practical experience of a global health initiative of the Government of Canada--the Teasdale-Corti Global Health Research Partnership Program. A number of challenges in the practical application of theoretical definitions and understandings of global health are addressed. These challenges are grouped under five areas that form essential characteristics of global health: equity and egalitarian North-South partnerships, interdisciplinary scope, focus on upstream determinants of health, global conceptualization, and global health as an area of both research and practice. Information in this paper is based on the results of an external evaluation of the program, which involved analysis of project proposals and technical reports, surveys with grantees and interviews with grantees and program designers, as well as case studies of three projects and a review of relevant literature. The philosophy and recent definitions of global health represent a significant and important departure from the international health paradigm. However, the practical applicability of this maturing area of research and practice still faces significant systemic and structural impediments that, if not acknowledged and addressed, will continue to undermine the development of global health as an effective means to addressing health inequities globally and to better understanding, and acting upon, upstream determinants of health toward health for all. While it strives to redress global inequities, global health continues to be a construct that is promoted, studied, and dictated mostly by Northern institutions and scholars. Until practical mechanisms are put in place for truly egalitarian partnerships between North and South for both the study and practice of global health, the emerging philosophy of global health cannot be effectively put into practice.