Question

The purpose of this assignment is to discuss the evolution of health informatics as a discipline and its evolving impact on the delivery of health care. For this assignment, write a 750-1,000 word paper that addresses the following:

1. Summarize the evolution of informatics as a discipline, including a few specific milestones/events and explanation of how a variety of practice areas emerged?
2. Discuss key legislation, policy, and state and federal regulatory bodies and their influence on the development of the discipline and contemporary scope of practice for informatics professionals.
3. Discuss how the development of health informatics as a discipline, profession, and specialty has influenced health care organizations and contemporary delivery of health care.
4. Discuss how foundational organizations, such as AMIA, AHIMA, HIMSS, HL7, and ANIA have impacted the health informatics discipline.
5. Discuss how you believe health informatics will continue to impact health care organizations and the delivery of health care in the next 3-5 years.

Integrate evidence from four or five sources in your paper.

Answer 1

QUESTIONS:

1. Summarize the evolution of informatics as a discipline, including a few specific milestones/events and explanation of how a variety of practice areas emerged?
2. Discuss key legislation, policy, and state and federal regulatory bodies and their influence on the development of the discipline and contemporary scope of practice for informatics professionals.
3. Discuss how the development of health informatics as a discipline, profession, and specialty has influenced health care organizations and contemporary delivery of health care.
4. Discuss how foundational organizations, such as AMIA, AHIMA, HIMSS, HL7, and ANIA have impacted the health informatics discipline.
5. Discuss how you believe health informatics will continue to impact health care organizations and the delivery of health care in the next 3-5 years

ANSWERS:

1.Summarize the evolution of informatics as a discipline, including a few specific milestones/events and explanation of how a variety of practice areas emerged?

• The goals of health informatics are to support healthcare delivery and improve the health status of all.
• Computer science brings to health informatics the technology and software coding required for this specialty while information science contributes the procedures and processes needed to develop and process data, information, and knowledge.
• The health professions provide the knowledge and wisdom to use computer and information science effectively in delivering healthcare and improving the health of all people.
• Understanding the scope and boundaries of health informatics begins with an appreciation of its roots within computer and information sciences.

•In 1937 the American Documentation Institute (ADI) was established.

•In 1964 the National Library of Medicine (NLM) began using the computerized MEDLARS (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System) as a mechanism to create Index Medicus.

•In 1971 the NLM began offering national online access to MEDLINE.

•In 1972 the NLM began training physicians and other health scientists in the use of computer technology for medical education and the provision of healthcare.

2.Discuss key legislation, policy, and state and federal regulatory bodies and their influence on the development of the discipline and contemporary scope of practice for informatics professionals.

• The Privacy Act of 1974 regulates information collected by the federal government and its agencies.
• The Confidentiality of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Patient Records rule allows for additional privacy in any federally assisted drug or alcohol-abuse program.
• The Conditions for Coverage of Specialized Services by Suppliers is part of Medicare laws that govern providers and requires that all PHI be kept confidential and protected against loss, destruction or unauthorized use.
• Institutional Review Boards are governed by state and federal laws and require informed written consent and data security and privacy..
• JCAHO has had varying ability to control and determine rules related to patient care, several of which pertain to PHI confidentiality. These rules are constantly under review and have included a large number of recent revisions coinciding with the increasing prevalence of EHRs.
• The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 empowers the Federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to oversee the promotion of Health IT – including quality, safety and security as well as the secure information exchange.
• The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 was enacted to allow for continuance of health insurance coverage in situations involving job changes or loss.
• The Affordable Care Act of 2010 was set up to fundamentally change the way people are insured; goals include lowering healthcare costs and making coverage accessible to previously uninsured people.
• The Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (FDASIA) of 2012 resulted in the collaboration of the HHS and FDA to recommend a regulatory framework for Health IT to improve mobile applications and other means to promote patient safety and innovation in healthcare delivery.
• The Medicare Access & CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) Reauthorization Act of 2015 is intended to ensure that physicians are paid fairly, that Medicare Part B costs are controlled and that healthcare is improved.
• The 21st Century Cures Act, passed by both houses of Congress. The goals for all, though, are the same: to “help modernize and personalize health care, encourage greater innovation, support research, and streamline the system,” according to the act’s mission statement.

3.Discuss how the development of health informatics as a discipline, profession, and specialty has influenced health care organizations and contemporary delivery of health care.

• Over the next several decades, evidence that a new specialty was being established can be seen in the following:

1.Publications of health informatics books

2.Development of new journals

3.Establishment of professional organizations

4.Number of informatics conferences that are now recurring events

5.Creation of university-level educational programs

6.Development of certification programs

• The history of each of these activities contributed to the development of the knowledge base that is unique to the discipline. Over time a result of these activities is an organized body of knowledge that is specific to the discipline. The newest information within the discipline is often presented at conferences. While a conference may have a theme and even subthemes, the focus is on presenting the newest information and not an organized body of knowledge. The timeliest articles on computer applications in medicine found in proceedings and transactions of meetings sponsored by professional and commercial organizations. As journals develop, the information and knowledge specific to the discipline become more established and organized. As the knowledge increases, the organizational structure of that knowledge is recognized and accepted within the discipline. At this point in the development of any discipline, including health informatics, books play a key role in presenting the knowledge of the discipline in an organized format. For example, scan the table of contents of this book and notice the overall organization of the knowledge specific to this discipline. As the discipline matures, these elements intersect with conferences and journal material coinciding and then feeding more formal material to books.

4.Discuss how foundational organizations, such as AMIA, AHIMA, HIMSS, HL7, and ANIA have impacted the health informatics discipline.

• While some scholars date the use of health informatics to the 1800s, the first evidence of computer-generated healthcare data appears in the United States in the mid-1950s. This was when the government first sponsored computer-based medical projects that were conducted by the military, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and others.
• Throughout the decades that followed, several professional organizations emerged to reflect a growing interest in the field. These organizations included the American Association for Medical Systems and Informatics (AAMSI), the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI), and the Symposium on Computer Applications in Medical Care (SCAMC).
• In 1988, these three groups merged to create the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), which remains a prominent organization committed to the science, education, and practice of informatics. Many other groups have formed since then, with dozens in existence around the world today.
• Here in the United States, some of the most prevalent professional organizations include the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA). There are also several professional associations specific to the technological, quality, certification, standardization and statistical aspects of health informatics.

5.Discuss how you believe health informatics will continue to impact health care organizations and the delivery of health care in the next 3-5 years.

1. Dramatic Savings

Health care isn’t just expensive; it’s wasteful. It’s estimated that half of all medical expenditures are squandered on account of repeat procedures, the expenses associated with more traditional methods of sharing information, delays in care, errors in care or delivery, and the like. With an electronic and connected system in place, much of that waste can be curbed.

2. Shared Knowledge

There’s a reason medicine is referred to as a “practice,” and it’s because health care providers are always learning more and honing their skills. Health informatics provides a way for knowledge about patients, diseases, therapies, medicines, and the like to be more easily shared.

3. Patient Participation

When patients have electronic access to their own health history and recommendations, it empowers them to take their role in their own health care more seriously.

4. The Impersonalization of Care

Instead of a doctor getting to know a patient in real time and space in order to best offer care, the job of “knowing” is placed on data and algorithms.As data is gathered regarding a patient, algorithms can be used to sort it in order to determine what is wrong and what care should be offered.

5. Increased Coordination

Health care is getting more and more specialized, which means most patients receive care from as many as a dozen different people in one hospital stay. This increase in specialists requires an increase in coordination, and it’s health informatics that provides the way forward.

6. Improved Outcomes

The most important way in which informatics is changing health care is in improved outcomes. Electronic medical records result in higher quality care and safer care as coordinated teams provide better diagnoses and decrease the chance for errors.