Health Informatics is the intersection of information technology, information science with public health and health care. It deals with resources, devices, methods and institutions required to optimize the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information in public health and health care.
To design a robust information system in health domain, it is essential to identify changing requirements and continuously improve system design. It enables the patient to access more health information, the providers to improve the quality of care, and empowers the health administrators for decentralized planning and management. It also supports policy making and strategic decisions at state and national levels.
The various sub-domains of health informatics include Hospital Information System, Human Resource Management Information System, Health Management Information System, Geographical Information System, mobile specific program monitoring system, and mobile health.
- Interoperability: Presently, most of the information systems are developed in silos, causing redundancy/ ambiguity of information exchange/sharing. To uniform use of common terms and common methods for sharing information, interoperability allows user to extract required information from multiple sources through a single query.
- Use of information: The challenge for the health information system is to bring together data production with data. It support users in synthesizing information regarding service delivery, preventive care, epidemics, clinical Management , alert/early warnings, Program Management, planning process, health situation, trend analyses, reporting, supervision and monitoring.
- Monitoring and Evaluation: Well-designed evaluations provide the information that information system designers need to insure a system’s performance, usability, security and functionality. Among other uses, evaluations are helpful in permitting system developers to develop and implement new health information systems, to inform public policy decisions, and even to understand how the public can use health information to make more informed healthcare decisions.For use of information, please go to our HMIS Data Analysis page
"The first rule of any technology used in a healthcare is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency."
Anonymous
