BUSI 505 HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS healthcare_informatics assign 19.pdf

Running Head: HEALTH INFORMATICS 1

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provision of health holistically (Nelson & Staggers, 2018). Importance within the field is placed

on the patient healthcare information.

The discipline developed from the need to keep healthcare databases and retrieve

information whenever needed to improve the dissemination of healthcare (Braunstein, 2014). In

the early days, medical professionals (nurses, physicists, etc.) kept their data regarding ailments

and specific patients they were administering healthcare. However, the complexities of the

information being stored grew with the advent of new equipment, universal healthcare practices

and an increasing number of diseases and patients meant that it was difficult to process all the data

systematically. The advent of the personal computer led to the further development of the field

Credentialing Center is one of the bodied that accredits health practitioners with a health

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informatics certification (Bennett & Hauser, 2013). The procedure regulates the discipline and

creates standards to be met.

Discussion Board 2: Privacy, Confidentiality and Security

The Health Information Exchange (HIE) program was adopted by Congress to promote

“the safe sharing and coordinated use of health information between institutions using federally

approved interoperability standards at a local state-level. In practice, several channels exist that

can be used to accomplish the goal of information sharing and dissemination. The rolling out of

the program meant that state institutions and organizations could choose methods that best suited

them while meeting the safest standards of health informatics (Bennett & Hauser, 2013).

HIE organizations that tap into unaffiliated health centers surrounding a specific region. Both tiers

are allowed to have their own local arranged solutions to information dissemination and sharing.

Within the enterprise framework, the network is supported by a single health facility, usually a

level 4 or 5 hospitals with one integrated network (Bennett & Hauser, 2013).

Currently, HIE’s are operational in 39 counties out of the total number of fifty-eight

counties within the state of California. Health Information Organization (HIO) within the state

receive and send over five million ATD messages every week which represents the number of

patients seeking healthcare within the same period. The HIE program in California serves more

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than just hospitals with coverage within the primary healthcare facilities. Localized HIOs offer

SMS services to their clientele with a wide reach to the community in addition to alerts that are

synchronized statewide (Bennett & Hauser, 2013).

Health literacy is defined as a patient’s ability to understand health information provided

to them by healthcare providers. The ability to make sense of health information is a factor of more

than just the ability to read, write or hear. A patient’s level education, earnings, social background

and others determine the level of understanding. A patient’s acceptance of a Personal Healthcare

Record by a patient also depends on their healthcare literacy levels. The research article aims at

professional and patient are also improved (Braunstein, 2014). The research has two null

hypotheses that the younger educated patients have a higher probability of accepting PHR over

older less educated patients.

The hypothesis is rejected as the figures obtained are not supportive or significant enough.

The second hypothesis that patients who have high levels of e-health literacy are more willing to

accept PHR than less educated e-health individuals is accepted. Therefore, the research concludes

that age and levels of education have little impact on the acceptance of PHR or other medical

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programs (Braunstein, 2014). However, active education of individuals puts them in a better

position to accept or reject medical programs irrespective of their age or gender.

soundness of any project.

Financial stakeholders determine if the project brings value to the health facility and

whether it is acceptable from a financial feasibility study. Secondly, medical leaders are a key

component of stakeholders. The Chief Medical Officer and head of departments will need to

evaluate if the IT system meets their specific requirements and demands of their teams. Concerns

raised by these group are taken into account. Thirdly, the end users of the IT system have to be

consulted and brought on board. Clinicians fall under this broad category and are used to asses the

impact of the project on a day to day running of the facility (Bennett & Hauser, 2013) . The

program will also primarily be run and used by clinicians and it is therefore critical that they can

use it with ease.

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agreement by several states within the United States to coordinate the safe sharing of healthcare

information in an organized and safe manner. HISPC primarily seeks to address the privacy and

security concerns raised through the sharing of healthcare information (HealthIT.gov, 2019).

Currently, California is a signatory state and participates in the project. The project was aimed the

security gaps that existed between the different states and bridged them through having a solitary

framework that cuts across the board (HealthIT.gov, 2019).

As earlier mentioned, California is actively involved in other statewide medical

collaborative efforts like the Personal Healthcare Records. This collaboration between the various

states is important for setting up a national standard for healthcare information privacy. The

existence of the benchmark provides a guiding principle through which other healthcare providers

can operate within. Additionally, the framework allows for the creation of an integrated system

breaches, the collaboration enhances the ability to protect better and recover information

(HealthIT.gov, 2019).

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healthcare services to a majority of the citizens of the United States. The implementation of

healthcare IT technology can go a long way in ensuring that the objectives of the affordable

healthcare act are met. Healthcare IT offers a value-based program that tabulates the value of work

done by practitioners. Information recorded by IT systems is key to this end as clinicians can be

graded based on the data collected over some time Nelson & Staggers, 2018).

Healthcare IT will increase accountability by health professionals as systems better record

the interaction between the patient and clinician. Institutions and organizations can be held

health system with whoever getting served first being based on necessity drawn from the available

data and not otherwise. Additionally, patient-doctor engagements increase as healthcare IT is

rolled out across the sector. It also eases the effort and time taken to conduct the engagement which

can be done on a more personal level. Healthcare IT systems have also been credited with better

organizing local healthcare providers into better units of combating health hazards and epidemics

as per the outlines of the affordable healthcare act Nelson & Staggers, 2018).

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up vacancies to be filled by qualified personnel within the discipline. Personnel chosen to operate

within the discipline should however have a key set of core skills to serve their purpose efficiently.

Communication skills are an important instrument in any healthcare system Nelson & Staggers,

2018). Most of the challenges revolving around health informatics include solving difficulties with

change management. The operator has to have an understanding of the human social dynamics of

the workforce in the healthcare system. Any changes within the system ought to be explained to

the clinicians in a language they best understand and that enhances their output.

Programming skills although not a necessity is important more so when operators have to

find solutions locally in a fast-moving environment. An understanding of the configurations and

system architecture allows the operator to diagnose solutions on a case by case basis without lags

in between. Health informatics faces multiple challenges in its implementation on a global scale.

First, most patients are not e-health educated enough to partake in the system and make it viable

in most countries (HealthIT.gov, 2019). Additionally, the different languages across the world

make it's hard to roll the program across the globe. Some places in the world are also not within

the main grid and cannot be accessed sustainably over an extended period. The challenges can be

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overcome by localizing health informatics instead of seeking to have a global or regional system

to serve all.

The increase in treatment options, ailments and numbers of healthcare providers make the

system rather crowded without optimal solutions to medical questions that may be posted. A need

to find the optimal answer to any question therefore exists within the medical profession (Bennett

& Hauser, 2013). The advent of artificial intelligence provides a route through which medical

questions can be answered while eliminating the human feature within decision making. In doing

so, the element of human error is eliminated and the prices made much more efficient (Noblin &

Fottler, 2014).

Within the “Artificial intelligence framework for simulating clinical decision-making: A

Markov decision process approach” research, Bennett investigates the feasibility of such a

proposal that relies on artificial intelligence. Bennett’s approach couples the Markov decision-

it outperforms the current model in the practice of treatment-as-usual (TAU) case-rate/fee-for-

service. Additionally, its cost per unit was much lower as compared to the model mentioned above

with a difference of $306 per case. This is also considering that the model can be improved further

with every generation of computer technology.