Field of information science concerned with the analysis and dissemination of medical data through the application of computers to various aspects of health care and medicine. Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) — National Library of Medicine
‘Health informatics is the logic of healthcare.’ Prof. Enrico Coiera, Guide to Health Informatics , 2nd Edition
“The role of the information sciences in medicine continues to grow, and the past few years have seen informatics begin to move into the mainstream of clinical practice. The scope of this field is, however, enormous. Informatics finds application in the design of decision support systems for practitioners, in the development of computer tools for research, and in the study of the very essence of medicine – its corpus of knowledge. The study of informatics in the next century will probably be as fundamental to the practice of medicine as the study of anatomy has been this century.” (Source: Coiera E (1995) Medical Informatics , BMJ, 1995;310:1381-7)
The terms ‘medical informatics’ and ‘health informatics’ have been variously defined, but can be best understood as meaning the understanding, skills and tools that enable the sharing and use of information to deliver healthcare and promote health. ‘Health informatics’ is now tending to replace the previously commoner term ‘medical informatics’, reflecting a widespread concern to define an information agenda for health services which recognises the role of citizens as agents in their own care, as well as the major information-handling roles of the non-medical healthcare professions… — British Medical Informatics Society
Health Informatics is concerned with the study of the principles of information processing and with the provision of (general) solutions for information processing problems in the field of health care; uses appropriate (formal) methods and tools, especially from informatics, to model structure and mechanism information processing systems in the field of health care in order to describe or analyze these systems or in order to provide possibilities for their construction or for their evaluation. Haux — Universiteit Maastricht
“…Informatics is an emerging discipline that has been defined as the study, invention, and implementation of structures and algorithms to improve communication, understanding and management of medical information. The end objective of biomedical informatics is the coalescing of data, knowledge, and the tools necessary to apply that data and knowledge in the decision-making process, at the time and place that a decision needs to be made. The focus on the structures and algorithms necessary to manipulate the information separates Biomedical Informatics from other medical disciplines where information content is the focus.” (Source: Aamir M. Zakaria., MD “Medical Informatics Frequently Asked Questions”, Duke University)
Informatics: “The use of information systems, computer technology and telecommunications to improve patient care, research and education.” (Source: Westmead Hospital, Westmead, N. S. W. Australia
Health Informatics examines areas such as health concepts, ontologies, classifications, terminologies, (health) knowledge managment methodologies and algorithms, electronic health record storage and delivery structures, health messaging and communication systems (including visual and auditory), decision support systems, and much more. Related topics such as the human-computer interface, ethical and legal impacts, consumer access, security and privacy as well as many ethical issues are part of the health informatics domain. Evans, D. 2003.
Drug dosages and weight calculations are a well understood source of serious errors and all manner of adverse outcomes including death. This is particularly noted in inexperienced, fatigued, panicky and high workload situations.
Mathematical skills can vary considerably among clinical staff and while a base level of numeracy is usual present various causes of problems can occur including the use of an incorrect formulae, miscalculation of a formula, legibility of the original order or subsequent directions and lack of checking.
None of these errors are necessarily eradicated in moving to a computerised solution be it handheld or spreadsheet process.
All the issues of poor software design live synergistically within new clinical information systems along with the pre-existing causative factors.
Poor software design may not lock in constants such as weight or dosage rates allowing them to be over-written by mistake, poor mouse or pen focus control and particularly on the latest micro and touch screens simply inaccurate hand eye coordination. Software and hardware focus control is essential as following completing one entry, movement to another cell by mouse may leave the focus on the preceding entry and unanticipated changes may result and may not be picked up by the inexperienced or casual user. Having typed a couple of key strokes and noting no change they click on the new entry point not realising the few key entries have gone into the preceeding entry.
”Wrong data in wrong cell” – a new catch cry or defense?
Windows is particularly prone to the focus-scrolling error where you can place your cursor on a cell and scroll through alternatives and then rather than using your mouse to move down to the next cell and click where you intend to type you forget to and start typing, meanwhile off screen an other cell is changing unbeknown to the user and even if known may not be able to be detected if the sheets or templates are complex.
Saskia N de Wildt, Ron Verzijden, John N van den Anker and Matthijs de Hoog in “Information technology cannot guarantee patient safety” ( BMJ, 2007:334:851-2) looked at some of these issues.
Medical Informatics
