Health Informatics
CHAPTER THREE
HEALTH INFORMATICS TERMINOLOGIES
Definition of Informatics
• Informatics is the science of information, the practice of information processing, and the
engineering of information systems
• Informatics - the sciences concerned with gathering, manipulating, storing, retrieving, and
classifying recorded information
• Informatics-the application of information technologies to optimize the information
management function within an organization
o From the above four definitions of Informatics include three main things:-
1. Information management
❖ Assuring that the right information is available to the right people, within and
without an organization, at the right time and place, and for the right price
2. Information system(IS)
❖ Information system (IS) refers to a system of persons, data records and
activities that process the data and information in an organization, and it includes
the organization's manual and automated processes.
❖ Information system refers to the specific application software that is used to
store data records in a computer system and automates some of the
information-processing activities of the organization
3. Information Technology
❖ Is the study , design, development, implementation , support and management of
computer based information systems particularly software applications and
computer hardware
What is Health Informatics?
• Health informatics:-The study and application of methods to improve the management of
patient data, medical knowledge, population data, and other information relevant to patient care
and community health.
• Health informatics, Health care informatics is the intersection of information
science, computer science, and health care.
• Health informatics deals with the resources, devices, and methods required optimizing the
acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information in health and biomedicine.
• Health informatics tools include not only computers but also:-
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▪ Clinical guidelines,
▪ Formal medical terminologies, and
▪ Information and communication systems.
• Health Informatics is applied to the areas of nursing, clinical care, dentistry, pharmacy,
public health and (bio) medical research.
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Domains of health informatics
• Domain of health informatics are shoe below:-
▪ Sub-domains of health informatics include:-
– clinical informatics,
– nursing informatics,
– imaging informatics,
– consumer health informatics,
– public health informatics,
– dental informatics,
– clinical research informatics,
– Translational research informatics.
– bioinformatics,
– veterinary informatics,
– pharmacy informatics,
– healthcare management informatics
– etc
Public health informatics
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• Is the systematic application of information and computer science and technology to
public health practice, research and learning
• Activities may include :-
✓ Collection and storage of vital statistics
✓ Collection and reporting of communicable diseases
✓ Disease surveillance
✓ Display disease statistics and trends
✓ Immunization
✓ Hospital statistics
✓ etc
Medical informatics
• Concerns itself with the cognitive, information processing, and communication tasks of
medical practice, education, and research, including information science and the
technology to support these tasks.
Bioinformatics
• Is the application of information technology to the field of molecular biology
• Common activities include:-
✓ Mapping and analyzing DNA and protein sequences,
✓ Aligning different DNA and protein sequences to compare them and creating
✓ Viewing 3-D models of protein structures.
➢ eHealth (e-health):-
• Is a relatively recent term for healthcare practice which is supported by electronic
processes and communication.
• The term is inconsistently used: some would argue it is interchangeable
with health informatics and a sub set of health informatics, while others use it in
the narrower sense of healthcare practice using the Internet
• Include:-
✓ Electronic Medical Records:
✓ Telemedicine
✓ Health knowledge management (or specialist-oriented information
provision): e.g. in an overview of latest medical journals, best practice
guidelines or epidemiological tracking.
✓ Virtual healthcare teams: consist of healthcare professionals who
collaborate and share information on patients through digital equipment.
✓ mHealth or m-Health(mobile health): - is medical and public health
practice supported by mobile devices, such as mobile phones, patient
monitoring devices, PDAs, and other wireless devices
• mHealth applications include the use of mobile devices in:-
- collecting community and clinical health data,
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- delivery of healthcare information to practitioners,
researchers, and patients,
- real-time monitoring of patient vital signs, and
- direct provision of care (via mobile telemedicine)
Nursing Informatics
- combination of computer science, information science and nursing science designed to
assist in the management and processing of nursing data and the delivery of nursing care
• Telemedicine:- can be defined as the use of telecommunications technologies that
provide and support health care when distance separates the participants
• Telehealth is the delivery of health-related services and information via
telecommunications technologies
✓ Clinical uses of telehealth technologies:-
▪ Transmission of medical images for diagnosis (often referred to as store
and forward telehealth)
▪ Groups or individuals exchanging health services or education live via
videoconference (real-time telehealth)
▪ Transmission of medical data for diagnosis or disease management
(sometimes referred to as remote monitoring)
▪ Advice on prevention of diseases and promotion of good health by patient
monitoring and followup.
▪ Health advice by telephone in emergent cases(referred to as teletriage)
✓ Nonclinical uses of telehealth technologies:-
o Distance education including continuing medical education, grand
rounds, and patient education
o Administrative uses including meetings among telehealth
networks, supervision, and presentations
o overall healthcare system management
o patient movement and remote admission
Finally The New Informatics Professional:-
Must be able to:
• discover, sort and communicate
Information that is:
• relevant, timely, comprehensible
They must also:
• design systems for end-user access
• build help for users
INFORMATION HIERARCHY
❖ Information Hierarchy can be:-
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DATA----- INFORMATION------ KNOWLEDGE --------- WISDOM
1. What is data?
❖ Data is raw facts and figures.
❖ Data is the product of symbols or representations of an event or facts about
the world, like number, letter, pictures, lines graphs, etc
❖ In and of itself, data has no meaning. If I count the number of cars that
stop at the stop sign on my block per hour for a week, that's data. It may be
useful or not, depending on the context. It has no meaning until it is placed in
a context. It is like an event out of context, without a meaningful relation to
other things. It doesn't have a meaning of itself and simply it exists and has
no significance beyond its existence.
❖ Therefore:
Data without a context has no meaning
❖ But this doesn't mean that data are useless. They are the elements that are
inputted, stored and manipulated by the computer.
Types of health data
Based on the duration of its collection data collected at the health sector can be classified as:
A. Routine health data: are health service based data collected at regular
intervals through mechanisms designed to meet predictable information
needs.
- For example, data about patients seen and services provided,
such as number of vaccinations given and number of
deliveries attended that are collected daily and aggregated on
a monthly basis are called the routine health data.
B. Semi-permanent data: data that change in a long-term duration.
■ For example, data on population in a district, number of
staff and beds in a facility are called semi-permanent data
C. .Permanent data: data that are rarely changed.
- For example, geographical data (roads, rivers, location of a
health facility etc) are permanent data.
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D. Non-routine data: Special studies, qualitative and quantitative rapid
assessments and surveys. The demographic health survey and the welfare
monitoring survey which has direct input in describing the health status of
the community is one example.
2. Information
➢ Information is data with context. Therefore, information is context dependent.
When does data become information?
➢ When you put a whole lot of data together that is related to one subject it
yields information.
e.g. Take a telephone book, it is developed by bringing different data
together (Name, Address and Telephone number)
➢ In other words:
(Sets of data) + (relational connection among data sets) = information
➢ Let's say I want to buy a car. I can collect a lot of data about makes of cars,
performance ratings, prices and so on. Once I do that, I have a lot of
information about cars and the car market. Unless we think of this collection
of data and put it in context (car/car market), it has no meaning.
➢ Therefore,
Data + understanding of relationship = information
➢ Examples:
1. The temperature dropped to 15 degrees and then it
Started raining. The data are:
• 15 degrees, and
• it is raining
It is the cause and effect relationship between the two that provides
information.
2. If we take 1000 and 5%, they don't give meaning but within the
context of bank account 1000 can represent the principle and 5% can
be the interest rate. When the data is within context it becomes
meaningful and represents information.
3. If we put data on people's smoking, habits together with data on lung
cancer, we can produce information about the risk of smoking.
4. A red traffic light is a form of data. The meaning we attach to this
data (i.e., STOP) is the information.
Types of health information
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The information that is needed at the health sector can be divided into two main kinds:
A. Patient management information
B. Health Management information
A. The patient management information system consists of all the information provided
by the patient regarding his/her illness that made him/her seek healthcare which we call
symptoms. In addition, all the findings of the physical examination that the healthcare
provider considers to be relevant for reaching into diagnosis are also included. The
investigation results including laboratory findings, radiology or ultrasound results as well
as the treatments provided for the patient are recorded in this system. This information is
useful in the management of patients and most healthcare providers are familiar with it as
recording such information is part of the medical course.
B. The health management information system consists of information that is required for
managerial purpose at the health sector. It includes information on the number of patients
seen, the type of cases seen in different seasons, the number of health professionals
available, the type and number of drugs available, and the like. Hence, HMIS is much
broader which includes aggregated data from the patient management information. Based
on such information, managers will be able to manage better the health facilities under
them or the health sector in general. For example, based on such information they can
calculate the patient load.
3. Knowledge
➢ Knowledge is the understanding that you have for given information. With
that understanding you’ll be able to use the information for you benefit.
➢ When does information becomes knowledge
▪ Once you spend some time interpreting and understanding a body of
information, then you have knowledge
▪ For example:
a. Information is available in encyclopedia; this information
becomes knowledge when we understand what it means or
how to apply it.
b. There is information in a telephone book. The knowledge is
understanding:
• Name - referring to a person (telephone subscriber)
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• Number - referring to code enabling to operate the
machine/make contact with the person
• How to use a telephone
• How telephone circuit operates, etc..
➢ Therefore, knowledge= Information + understanding of the pattern.
➢ Has the technology contributed in the process of creation of knowledge?
❖ The process of creating knowledge is time taking. The
technology has not done anything to make the process of
creating knowledge any quicker or cheaper. The technology
has greatly reduced the cost involved in assembling and storing
data, and in transferring and storing, information. Creating
knowledge still takes human brain, human thoughts and time -
especially today when there is too much information available.
➢ There are two types of knowledge:
a. Formal knowledge: which is in the form of written information. It
is consciously known and communicable as a set of procedures.
b. Informal/Tacit knowledge: is usually acquired through
experience, is often unconscious, and is difficult to put in to words.
For example, describing how to ride a bicycle is difficult (how can
you explain about locating a center of gravity?)
4. Wisdom
➢ Wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge in order to solve a problem. After
gaining knowledge, wisdom is used to meet new situations and hence is the
ability to imagine the consequences of our actions for ourselves and for
others.
➢ It is an asset for good judgment that we acquire through experience.
➢ It is accumulated knowledge gained through a combination of:
• Academic study
• Personal experience
Example:
o If the knowledge of getting $5 interest on $100 principal after one
year is valid, why people do not become rich by putting money in a
saving account and letting it to grow? This represents system
thinking and the answer requires other elaborating patterns that
operate over time. The answer for the above question may be:
✓ People do not put money at all due to many
factors (e.g. low income level, high level of consumption).
OR
✓ If they put, they withdraw it for various reasons that reduces
the principal as well as the interest.
➢ The one who has knowledge may not necessarily have the capacity to
process wisdom. You can find people with advanced degrees who lack
wisdom or wise judgment? Our grandparents may lack knowledge since they
are not educated. But they are long on wisdom. Through long experience
they can apply the values, ethics and reasons to make wise judgment.
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➢ Therefore, wisdom combines
Y experience of connecting and reviewing bodies of knowledge, and
Y a genuine grasp of human nature and the different ways that
exist in the real world,
• This allows the proper use of data, information and knowledge to judge between right
and wrong, good and bad.
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