Health Informatics as a Career Choice
Health informatics is a process that entails the obtaining, stocking, and retrieving of information on healthcare to enhance better interrelationship among a patient’s health providers. The responsible personnel store data in a sequential manner that is easy to extract for use in future evaluation or reporting. Healthcare informatics dates back to 1800s, with the first application of healthcare data that was computer generated appearing in 1950s in the United States. The National Institutes of Health, the military among others conducted the government sponsored project (Shekelle, Morton & Keeler). Shekelle et al. argue that laws, innovation, and demand drove health informatics. Missing data and poorly managed data have all have driven the necessity for integration of healthcare and technology. Patient safety concerns led to the introduction of patient safety databases that include vaccine registries and infection control programs. The increase in cost also pushed the introduction of well-designed, affordable systems.
The President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) was formed to encourage the use of informatics. The Institute of Medicine also wrote letters emphasizing the importance of informatics and IT in healthcare. These two organizations made federal efforts for the electrical organization of medical records (Shekelle et al.). The HITECH Act has given incentives to physicians that embraced approved electronic health records (EHRs), by the meaningful use (MU) program with the aim of improving healthcare services. The use of EHR system, as a result, rose by 7% above the predicted levels.
There was little enthusiasm, however, for the EHR system as it reduced productivity and lacked capabilities for data sharing (Hebda, Czar & Mascara). According to Hebda et al., factors are hindering the adoption of health information technology. The complexity of the program and lack of trust with the program are some of the barriers. Medical workers have lost data in case of power surge and when computers crash. The system did not have an alert system in the event of drug interactions, allergy or pregnancy.
Healthcare Informatics Consultants are responsible for installing software, updating networks and monitoring systems and troubleshooting. Health Informatics Directors are responsible for technology issues and protocol changes. Other career opportunities include Electronic Medical Record Keeper, Healthcare IT Project Manager, and Nursing Informatics Specialist among others (Hebda et al.).
Works cited
Hebda, Toni, Patricia Czar, and Cynthia Mascara. Handbook of informatics for nurses and healthcare professionals. Prentice Hall, 2005.
Shekelle, Paul, Sally C. Morton, and Emmett B. Keeler. "Costs and benefits of health information technology." (2006).
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