BUSI 505-Healthcare Informatics
From Concept to Discipline: How Healthcare Informatics Fostered Growth within the Industry
Marisa Covington
Liberty University
Within the realm of healthcare, the need to properly manage and access patient information
quickly and efficiently is paramount to providing the highest quality of care to those who need it
most. Healthcare informatics has developed into a multifaceted discipline assisting managers in
electronic documentation and healthcare delivery management; however, it was not always as
such.
From concept to discipline, healthcare informatics is defined as “the interdisciplinary field that
studies and pursues the effective uses of biomedical data, information, and knowledge for
scientific inquiry, problem-solving and decision making, motivated by efforts to improve human
health” (Kulikowski et al., 2012) With the desire to integrate technology into daily use for
healthcare provider came the push eventual push to offer various technologies to assist
healthcare providers. As computers became more advanced and less expensive, the integration
process became more cost-effective allowing for computer access to healthcare workers. With
the emergence of this new market, developers began producing data processing software that
allowed for these healthcare providers to input, retrieve, and share information at speeds that the
primitive processes could not while still maintaining accuracy. Furthermore, in addition to
accuracy, safety was another major reason for the push to move healthcare informatics from a
concept to discipline due to patient fatalities. Braunstein (2014) discussed how paper systems
could be easily confused and how a study had identified that this confusion contributed to
44,000-98,000 deaths annually. Moreover, the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM),
helped to develop standards for the health record system, data content, laboratory message
exchange, and health information system security to safeguard against inaccuracy that helped to
mitigate a lot of risks for patients (Evolution of Healthcare Informatics Standards, 2016)
Beyond the development of a fast and efficient data processing system, healthcare has opened
the door for targeted patient care, services and education. “The ultimate goal of health
informatics is to empower populations, communities, families, and individuals with the
opportunity to improve the quality and increase the quantity of their days by maximizing the use
of technology in healthcare” (Nelson, 2018). Moreover, those who have access to these systems
as healthcare providers, they can offer services that are unparallel to systems without this
resource. Healthcare administrators and managers are now able to provide a heightened level of
service to patients that can empower them to make positive changes in their lives and their
families. Mark 4:20 states “but those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the
word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” Furthermore, if the
information and access that healthcare informatics offers are applied within the discipline and the
profession of healthcare providers, the business, the services, and the changes in the patient's life
will be fruitful. A concept that is developed, studied, and applied provides evidence of success in
its results of systems and services and in the lives of the patients that it serves.
In conclusion, healthcare informatics has evolved and continues to evolve as its capabilities and
applications are still being defined daily. With proper application by healthcare providers
through the healthcare delivery system, more communities will be empowered through services
directing targeting the need of the individuals that inhabit it. Through the integration of
technology and data management systems, more information can be easily accessed and shared
than previously possible. The applications of healthcare informatics within the healthcare
delivery field have yet to be fully understood but seem to be filled with much promise for the
future.
How informatics is transforming medicine
Some emerging applications of health care and biomedical research data are straightforward.
Others are more surprising and may create a future health care landscape in which partnerships
between clinicians and technologists are the norm.
1 – Health informatics makes medical care less expensive
Financial losses caused by delays in care, errors in care, fraud and inefficiency are a major drain
on the U.S. health care system.?Waste costs health systems between $760 and $935 billion?per
year—representing approximately 25% of total health care spending—and may be a major factor
in rising health care costs. Medical errors alone cost the U.S. around?$38 billion each year,
according to the Institute of Medicine, but studies show informatics can decrease waste
by?reducing medical errors,?lowering practice overhead?and making care more efficient and
effective.
2 – Health informatics reduces prescription errors
According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information,?medication errors harm nearly
1.5 million patients?annually. There are already informatics systems designed to ensure that
patients receive the right medication the first time, preventing allergic reactions and dangerous
interactions. Software platforms like Computer Provider Order Entry Systems (CPOE) or
Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) detect errors including duplication, mismatches and
administration errors by cross-referencing prescriptions with patient records. Hardware-driven
health informatics innovations such as drug-dispensing robots and automatic dispensing cabinets
ensure providers give the right medications at the right times to the right patients.
Informatics also has the potential to help researchers reduce medication errors outside of medical
facilities. A PwC Health Research Institute study found that 71% of pharmaceutical companies
believe access to information in EHRs could help clinicians better?understand and overcome
medication non-compliance.
3 – Health informatics expands access to care
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a boom in telehealth and IT infrastructure investments. Today,
data-driven?telemedicine systems, virtual health care systems and connected vital sign
monitoring technologies make it easier for patients to consult with providers, regardless of
location. Virtual hospitals and health care facilities bring health care services to?underserved
rural areas?and developing nations, while hybrid care models allow existing health care networks
to serve patients who can’t or won’t seek in-person treatment.
Informatics can do more than expand access to essential health services, however. It can also
help people get the care they need more quickly. Greater health-focused information technology
investment is?associated with shorter wait times, and surprisingly, that reduction in wait times is
greater for non-white than for white patients.
4 – Health informatics improves quality of care
Widespread data collection and analysis is changing how providers develop treatments for
individual patients and extending the reach of research for hard-to-treat diseases. Because
informatics systems make it easier to retrieve and search EHR data, doctors, nurses and
specialists can review patient histories more quickly, improving the speed and responsiveness of
patient care.
On a macro level,?informatics?powers?personalized medicine?(also called?precision medicine) by
collecting colossal amounts of health data and translating that data into individually tailored
treatments. Informatics also makes it easier to?recruit appropriate participants?in clinical research
studies and?understand the results?so researchers can develop new treatments and medications
more quickly.
The impact of informatics on patient care feeds back on itself. Data collected by providers is
used in research that leads to innovation in treatment and/or to changes in health care protocols
and policy, ultimately improving the care that patients experience.
5 – Health informatics empowers patients
Data-driven patient-education systems and wearables make it easier for patients to care for
themselves outside of medical settings, fostering better patient-provider partnerships and
potentially improving outcomes. A variety of affordable consumer-grade devices make it easier
for consumers to?participate more fully in their own health care. There are consumer informatics
applications designed to support cancer patients as they practice self-care, and these and other
software systems have been shown in studies to?improve clinical outcomes. In one study, patients
with HIV who used the?Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System, or CHESS, for
information and support reported fewer hospitalizations and a higher quality of life than patients
who did not use the system.
6– Health informatics improves population health
Data science applied to better, more accessible health records can give researchers insight into
common diseases in the general population and emerging public health threats.?Public health
informatics?also helps medical providers keep track of these illnesses, carefully design strategies
to counter potential epidemics and drive?geographically-specific health initiatives. This subfield
of informatics is behind immunization registries that collect confidential, population-based,
computerized data about children and vaccinations;?disease registries?that track the incidence of
certain conditions (especially cancers, birth defects and conditions associated with environmental
contamination); and the?National Electronic Disease Surveillance System?(NEDSS), which uses
data and information system standards to advance the development of efficient, integrated and
interoperable surveillance systems at federal, state and local levels. Some regions are even using
population health informatics to create?connected health cities?that leverage data to improve
access to care and quality of care.
7 – Health informatics makes clinical research better
Clinical trial informatics?supports clinical research?in several ways. IT systems and software
platforms designed by informaticists can speed up patient recruitment, streamline ethical
approvals and renewals, boost levels of participant activity and make data collection and analysis
easier. Informaticists also build data warehouses that give researchers easier access to
repositories of data from completed clinical trials for secondary analysis.
8 – Health informatics improves accuracy in diagnostics
Providers, however well-trained, are human beings and subject to error. When informaticists
train computer systems to interpret radiological scans, those systems tend to make few mistakes.
Research into these diagnostic systems is driving innovation that could eventually save lives by
detecting cancers and other conditions earlier and with greater accuracy. Kheiron Medical, for
example, developed deep learning software to detect?breast cancers?in?mammograms.?Fractal
Analytics?incubated Qure.ai which uses deep learning and AI to speed up the analysis of
diagnostic x-rays. Even Google has participated in diagnostic informatics research. The tech
giant worked on a?project with the NHS?that used medical images collected from patients to
develop computer vision algorithms to detect cancerous tissues.
9 – Health informatics saves lives
Many innovations in informatics are largely invisible to patients and providers. Technology that
isn’t directly related to patient care is usually focused on administration, but consumer health
trackers and data-driven clinical and patient care systems have improved medicine in notable
ways. Clinical predictive analytics?helps identify high-risk patients. AI systems trained on health
care data effectively?predict who will have heart attacks and strokes. Studies suggest health IT
applications that support patient-centered care have a?positive effect on health care outcomes.
And the potential of smart wearables is enormous. The Apple Watch, for example,?saved the life
of a 46-year-old?father when it detected and alerted him to his irregular heartbeat.
References:
Kulikowski, C. A., Shortliffe, E. H., Currie, L. M., Elkin, P. L., Hunter, L. E., Johnson, T. R., …
Williamson, J. J. (2012). AMIA Board white paper: definition of biomedical informatics and
specification of core competencies for graduate education in the discipline. Journal of the
American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, 19(6), 931–938. doi:10.1136/amiajnl-
2012-001053
Braunstein, M. L. (2014). Contemporary health informatics. Chicago, IL: American Health
Information Management Association.
Evolution of Healthcare Informatics Standards. (2016, December 29). Retrieved from
https://www.himss.org/library/interoperability-standards/Evolution-of-Healthcare-
Informatics-Standards.
Nelson, R., & Staggers, N. (Ed. 2). (2018). Health informatics: An interprofessional approach.
St. Louis, Missouri
