Overview and introduction to health informatics & Dental
Informatics (DI)
Overview and introduction to health informatics & Dental
Informatics (DI)Dr Ebtissam M. Al-Madi
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Overview and introduction to health informatics & Dental
Informatics (DI)Different definitions of Health informatics,
medical informatics and Dental informaticsHistory of Health and
InformaticsThe discipline of Health InformaticsScope of Health
informaticsScope of Dental InformaticsUses of health & dental
informaticsCurrent issues in health informatics
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Health & Medical InformaticsDifferent definitions of Health
informatics, medical informatics and Dental informatics
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"Medical informatics is the application of computers,
communications and information technology and systems to all fields
of medicine ; medical care, medical education and medical
research.
definition by MF Collen (MEDINFO '80, Tokyo, later extended)
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Medical Informatics"Medical informatics is a developing body of
knowledge and a set of techniques concerning the organizational
management of information in support of medical research,
education, and patient care.... Medical informatics combines
medical science with several technologies and disciplines in the
information and computer sciences and provides methodologies by
which these can contribute to better use of the medical knowledge
base and ultimately to better medical care.
Definition by Asso. of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) 1986
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Health InformaticsHealth informatics, Health care informatics or
medical informatics is the intersection of information science,
computer science, and health care. It deals with the resources,
devices, and methods required to optimize the acquisition, storage,
retrieval, and use of information in health and biomedicine. Health
informatics tools include not only computers but also clinical
guidelines, formal medical terminologies, and information and
communication systems. It is applied to the areas of nursing,
clinical care, dentistry, pharmacy, public health and (bio)medical
research.
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Analysis of definitionPractical Goal: to provide better health
care
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Origin of term "Medical Informatics"
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Dental InformaticsDental informatics is the application of
computer and information science to improve dental practice,
research, education and management.
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Origin of field
Cognitive PsychologyEconomicsDigital analysis
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Appearance of computers in medicine1960s - practical = early use
only in departmental research = early ECG and diagnosis1970s -
practical = Huge size- administrative & departmental, imaging
(CT), early bibliographic retrieval & research 1980s -
practical = results reporting, outpatient services growth of
clinical systems and databases research = Artificial Intelligence,
Information Retrieval 1990s - practical = integration,
communication research = vocab, interfaces, coding, evaluationNote
how medicine lags computer hardware
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Appearance of computers in
medicine1960197019801990PracticalResearchNote how medicine lags
computer hardware
Slow at firstComputers have been slow to enter clinical care:#
hosp with billing, Administrative vs lab + clinical, Artificial
Intelligence.# offices with clinical systems.but clinical care is
largely the management of info.primarily in the background:
practice mgmt, libraries, billing, financial
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Gaining popularityrecent increase of medical informaticsnot new
field but marked increase in popularity, funding, publicationeg
1984 AAMC recommended formation of MI academic units (first done in
Europe, esp France, in the 1960s)
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Factors in recent increase of medical informaticsincrease in use
of technology - more data generatedmobility of population - need to
communicatespecialization - need to communicatemanaged care systems
- need to communicaterise in health care costs - attempt to control
careimproved hardware - faster and more memoryimproved methods -
acquisition, transfer, retrievalreduced computer costsincreased
awareness
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Factors in lack of use of computers in clinical careinvolves
complex organisms (unlike physical processes) if over-simplify, not
useful (vs bank transaction) therefore need sophisticated
abstraction + detail technology for gathering complex info. just
emerging, eg low use of QMR or Dxplain therefore providers have not
entered info.reimbursement has not been linked to clinical info.,
therefore many admin. systems but few clinical health care
administered by individuals, small groups less need for
coordination inertiafear: "cookbook medicine" liability ignorance
money security, integrity lack of standards language previous
failures rapid turnover of technology
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Discipline of Health InformaticsWhy need a new discipline?often
cannot get credit in related fields for work at the interface of
related disciplinesfew were championing clinical
applicationsMedical informatics as a sciencebroad spectrum (theory
to practice)basic science (knowledge for itself,
models)experimental science (hypothesis, experiment,
analysis)applied science, engineering (practical goals)
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Composition of medical informatics groupsMDs, RNs, dentists,
other health care workersPhDs, esp computer science (also physics,
...)Administrators, policy plannersMasters, PhD programs in medical
informaticsIndustryPart-time vs full-timeInstitutional
organizationDivision within medicineAspect of computer
scienceInter-disciplinary centerDepartment (like biostatistics):
relatively unusual in USA
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Scope of Health InformaticsHealth informatics encompasses all
the areas where technology and information contribute to the
support of health care delivery, management, planning and research.
Related to the core areas are themes such as ethics, attitudes
learning, coping with third party interactions all into and
utilizing health informatics. Other research has been identified
into content provision, generating an evidence base and knowledge
management.
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Scope of Dental InformaticsInformation Science:is the
collection, classification, storage, retrieval, and dissemination
of recorded knowledge treated both as a pure and as an applied
science.Computer science:is a discipline that involves the
understanding and design of computers and computational processes.
Here, the emphasis is not on information, but how it is
represented, processed, manipulated, and managed in computing
systems.
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Scope of Dental InformaticsCognitive science: is a research area
that draws on several fields (such as psychology, artificial
intelligence, linguistics, and philosophy) to develop theories of
perception, thinking, and learning. Cognitive science relates to
information science as we try to understand how information is
represented in the human mind.Computer science relates to
information science as try to simulate our mental processes in
computing environments. Biomedicine is replete with complex
cognitive processes (such as diagnosis, treatment planning, and
evaluation).
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Scope of Dental InformaticsTelecommunications:Is the science
that deals with communication at a distance. Transmission of
digital images efficiently resulted in new approaches to image
compression and transmission. Another example is aggregating
information from many different sources, such as information about
the same patient from different healthcare providers.
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Current Issues in Health InformaticsCurrent issues in clinical
careCostAccessibility of health careCoordinating care and setting
policyStandards of terminologyAcquisition and retrieval of data (eg
across inst.)Data Privacy, confidentiality and securityAcquisition
and sharing of knowledge (eg specialist).
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Current Issues in Health InformaticsMedical informatics research
mirrors clinical issuesData acquisition Data storage - databases,
modelingVocabularies - format, contentOrganization of data Machine
interfaces - standards like HL7, securityData retrieval - query
languagesKnowledge acquisitionKnowledge representationApplication
of knowledge when needed Decision analysis, alerts,
diagnosisEducationCare plans and practice guidelines
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Current Issues in Health InformaticsGeneral research questions
in medical informaticsKnowledge extraction from
databasesStructuring knowledge: impact on acquisition, storage and
retrievalLinking different classes of knowledgeUsing knowledge to
make decisionsHuman factors in computingTaxonomyLinking disparate
systems
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This weeks assignmentsView this lecture online.Read article;
Dental informatics. A cornerstone of dental practice. by TITUS
SCHLEYER and HEIKO SPALLEKParticipate in Week 2 discussion.
(NO Homework- NO quiz this week)
ViewReadDiscuss
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Thank youDr Ebtissam [email protected] Questions?
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