Health Informatics: An Introduction to the Field
Health Informatics is the appropriate and innovative application of the concepts and technologies of the information age to improve health care and health.With the evolution of the field, health informatics is probably best defined in the context of eHealth, which is generally accepted as an umbrella term composed of 2 elements [1]:
- health informatics (related to the collection, analysis and movement of health information and data to support health care), and
- telehealth (related to direct e.g. videoconferencing or indirect e.g. website delivery of health information or health care to a recipient.) eHealth encompasses products, systems and services, including tools for health authorities and professionals as well as personalised health systems for patients and citizens [2].
The scope of eHealth includes bench-top to bedside to population health activities, which present complex information management challenges to support individualised patient care.
References
- Wang X, Turner L, Scott RE. Technology solutions—saving the day? 6th Annual Can Soc of Telehealth Conference, Halifax. Nova Scotia 5-7 Oct 2003
- European Commission. eHealth—making healthcare better for European citizens: an action plan for a European eHealth area, 2004 (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2004:0356:FIN:EN:PDF)
Topic
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General health informatics information, health informatics organisations, general medical informatics/nursing informatics/bioinformatics |
Classification schemes, language, concepts, coding, classification, data acquisition and entry, reporting, data sets, health information models, quality and integrity of data |
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Standards in terminology, electronic health records, security, professional practice, messaging. |
Medical record principles, functional requirements, architectures and archetypes, electronic patient records, government initiatives, unique identifiers |
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Methods to manage existing and newly-acquired knowledge, evidence-based practice, evaulation of clinical practice |
Commonwealth and State Government agencies, ICT strategy devlopment and initiation, health service management, business knowledge management, health planning and policies, data policies, agreements and economics |
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e-Health vs i-Health vs Telehealth, e-commerce, telecommunications infrastructure, using the internet to delier health care or health information, provier networks, supply chain management |
Medical specialties, nursing, evidence-based practice |
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Resource Type
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Health informatics publications (papers, reports, book chapters and other documents) authored by and/or recommended by ACHI Fellows and Members. |
Journals which regularly publish academic papers relating to health informatics. Some of these have full text access via their websites. |
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Health informatics textbooks recommended by ACHI Fellows and Members. These textbooks are particularly recommended to those new to the field of health informatics |
Health informatics presentations/lectures/seminars, etc recommended by ACHI Fellows and Members. These resources may include transcripts, slides (e.g. PowerPoint format) or multimedia files (e.g. YouTube videos or podcasts) |
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Health informatics websites and pages recommended by ACHI Fellows and Members |
Health informatics education: university degree programs, courses, seminars, workshops |
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Health informatics research activities/projects/initiatives and institutions with research programs |
Basic information about health informatics for those new to the field |
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Health informatics organisations (Australian and international) |
