Question

How will topics in Health Informatics program such as Consumer Health and Clinical Research Informatics, and clinical informaticians assist students in identifying their interest in this areas?

Answer 1

Health informatics or the  Health Information Systems functions to categorise and analyse the datas pertaining to health with the help of information technology inorder to improve the outcomes of healthcare services.Health informatics in nursing also referred to as Nursing informatics incorporates nursing, computer, and information sciences to maintain and develop medical data and systems to support the nursing practice, and to improve the care outcomes. It is already accepted that nursing includes 'high touch approach' but advancement in health care technologies takes one more step to develop nursing into 'high tech,high touch approach'. The responsibility of a health informatics nurses is to manage, interpret, and communicate the data that's available in the  health care facilities, inorder to improve the quality of patient care.

Consumer Health Informatics (CHI) is a rapidly advancing domain in the field of health informatics. The biggest contribution of consumer health informatics research in the field of healthcare sector are attempts to systematise and codify consumers' needs, values, and preference that may help to identify how informations can be presented to consumers in the best possible possible way that may inturn influence the outcomes . Newer concepts like telehealth, mHealth(mobile health), the quantified-self movement, personal health records and health portals are some of the benchmarks in this field. In the coming time, patients can be in charge of their own health care using informatics tools and systems.Consumers are able to actively participate in the decision-making process and to engage in health care processes and decisions. Some of the emerging concepts like precision medicine and the sharing economy may craete new opportunities and challenges despite the field of health informatics may continue to develop.

Clinical Informatics is the application of informatics and information technology to deliver healthcare services and the person who practices it is called clinical informatician.

Some advantages of health informatic include: better coordination of care, easy and improved documentation, preventing medical errors and provision of cost effective treatment. It also helps to to track staffing and workflow to identify and solve the deficiencies.

These topics in health informatics can help the students to update themselves and become competitive and skilled enough to behold the 'hi-tech,hi-touch approach in nursing'