Healthcare Informatics Response

You are required to reply to 2 classmates’ threads, identifying at least 1 strength and 1 weakness in each classmate’s reasoning. Each reply must be at least 450 words. Each thread and reply must include at least 1 biblical integration and 2 peer-reviewed source citations in current APA format in addition to the textbooks. APA format please!

Discussion board #1 Gibson et al. defined health informatics (HI) “as the discipline concerned with the study and pursuit of effective uses of information, often aided by the use of technology, to improve health care delivery as well as individual and population health outcomes” (Gibson, 2015).  It is often used synonymously and erroneously with other terms such as biomedical informatics (BMI), clinical informatics, and public health informatics.  BMI covers HI, clinical informatics, as well as public health informatics.  Factors drive BMI to improve human health.  Clinical informatics is utilizing health information and technology to provide health services, specifically clinical care.  Public health informatics uses health information to improve population health in the prevention of disease and health promotion.  In contrast, HI, uses these technologies to share health data and information to improve data sharing, thus improving coordination of care.  Professionals such as medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and dental utilize HI for efficient and accurate data sharing.

The development of health informatics can be traced back to the 1950s with the beginning uses of computers in healthcare.  This early period in the history of informatics extended into the 1960s and was characterized by experimenting with this new technology in medicine and nursing education.  Health informatics began as a specialty within healthcare and has evolved over the years as medical professionals have started to apply technology in the computer and information sciences to complex healthcare problems (Nelson, 2020). Computer and information science bring health informatics the technology, software, and procedures to develop and process data, information, and knowledge (Gibson, 2015). The health professions provide the knowledge to use computer and information science in delivering healthcare.  Professional associations such as the American Medical Association (AMA) began to develop educational training programs in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The 1980s was a critical period for advancements in health informatics.  Of specific note, the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) Nursing Informatics group was established in 1981 and continues to operate today.   Nursing Informatics is the “science and practice (that) integrates nursing, its information, and knowledge, with information and communication technologies to promote the health of people, families, and communities worldwide.” (adapted from IMIA Special Interest Group on Nursing Informatics 2009) (Nursing Informatics, 2020).

An example of some of the earlier work surrounding HI began with a nursing student Connie Settlemeyer at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing in the 1960s.  Ms. Settlemeyer designed a program to teach nursing students how to write patient care notes using Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan, and Evaluation (SOAPE) (Nelson, 2020).  Also, during this time, the article “Reasoning Foundations of Medical Diagnosis” written by Dr. Robert Ledley and Lee Lusted was published in 1959 in the Science journal.  The article discusses a computer-based approach to medical diagnosis.  The purpose of the article was to analyze and understand the human reasoning processes involved in making a medical diagnosis and then incorporate that process to utilize computers in aiding in the medical diagnosis process (Ledley, 1959).     To determine whether computers can assist in the medical diagnosis process.  The use of computers resulted in a list of possible diagnoses based on the provider’s medical knowledge and the patient’s symptoms. They were showing that computers can assist in determining specific complex disease processes.

Technology has recently transformed the healthcare setting by introducing e-health records (EHR) (Gibson, 2015).  The use of EHR has doubled over the last decade.  The increased usage of EHR has also resulted in a spike in professionals to support the growth.  Electronic health records help improve patient care, improve public health, ease workflow, and lower costs.  Continued technological developments are necessary for health informatics to continue improving healthcare resulting in improved patient quality of care.

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