Health Informatics

Health Informatics
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Health Informatics
1. Describe what health informatics is?
Health informatics can be described as a scientific field that deals with biomedical information storage, and retrieval of data and knowledge, and optimal use for problem solving and decision making. It mainly deals with all basic and applied fields in biomedical science and is directly attached to modern information technologies, especially in the areas of computing and communication. Medical Informatics deals with the theoretical and practical aspects of information processing and communication, based on knowledge and experience resulting from processes in medicine and health care (Johnson & Jacobson, 1999).
a. Who benefits from the use of health informatics?
Following the use of computers, the Internet and diverse medical databases, doctors can improve on ways of effective treat patients’ treatment. The data retrieved by use of heath informatics provides statistical information that has a strong effect on the manner in which medicine is distributed, how surgery is performed and how curing is tracked. It also helps hospital better track patients’ past records as a result they can be treated faster in the future. The use of health informatics has increased the capability of clinics to treat patients efficiently, and helps these clinics refine their current process to make it more streamlined. The development and combination of computer with medical science has been beneficial to specialists, and has also enabled patients to access better treatment (Flower, 2004).
b. How did health informatics come into being?
As a result of the invention of the LISP programming language in the late 1950s and the advancement in computing technology and data storage in the 1960s, this enabled doctors, graduate students, and computer specialists to start working at different locations to create diagnostic systems and other medical computer programs (Coiera, 2006). The MUMPS programming language, which was created at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1966 - 1967 allowed for the creation and integration of medical databases and form the basis for many healthcare records programs.
c. How is health informatics being used?
It is being used in Health Evaluation through Logical Processing (HELP) as a way of improving medication management and Costs reduction. The HELP system provides decision support programs, which include the computerized antibiotic consultant, which helps physicians, in the selection of the best antibiotic for the patients. The computer assists the decision support programs in the HELP s...