Is Bioinformatics A Multi Disciplinary Field?

Health informatics is the subject concerned with the application of information and communications technologies (ICT) to acquire, process, interpret, store, transmit and retrieve health-related and healthcare data, using the derived information and knowledge in healthcare delivery, education, management and research. This paper discusses in detail an overview of health informatics and its applications. It also discusses some advantages and disadvantages of health informatics, identifies some of the recent trends in the health industry as a result of the adoption and implementation of electronic medical records.

These domains will enhance the way we practice medicine because there is so much information and knowledge being produce from all the data that is being collected and analyzed by translational bioinformatics. Translational bioinformatics is the area of biomedical informatics that has to do with collecting data from various databases. The data collected is stored and analyzed to produce information and knowledge about a disease or a health related issue

Along with the new technologies applying in healthcare, the documentation processes and storages also change from paper charts to computer-based electronic health records (EHR). Many healthcare organizations currently maintain patients’ health records in both formats of paper and electronic. The combination is known as hybrid health record system, which is used to assist in different methods that patients’ information is collected. Hybrid health records (HHR) contain specific patients’ health information. HHRs are stored manually and electronically in multiple places. Current patients’ health records usually contain both digital documents and handwritten notes. Patients’ data are electronically stored, such as laboratory, radiology tests,

Informatics is the science of the management of information. It includes different techniques on how the information is collected, stored, utilized and sent to other locations or transmitted. Informatics utilizes computers to process this information. Clinical informatics is also known as health informatics. Clinical informatics is the application and integration part of informatics. It takes the information that has been studied and learned and puts it into practice. (Coiera, 2015). Thus supporting best practices amongst organizations and improving the quality of care given. Informatics takes information studied and uses it to improve efficiency of care givers, eases quality improvement measures, and aids in decreasing liability risks (Aston, 2014).

Worldwide use of computer technology in medicine began in the early 1950s with the rise of the computers. In 1949, Gustav Wagner established the first professional organization for informatics in Germany. Medical informatics research units began to appear during the 1970s in Poland and in the U.S. Since then the development of high-quality health informatics research, education and infrastructure has been a goal of the U.S. and the European Union. (NYU graduate training program, 2010) Changes in the healthcare environment produced fundamental shifts in the delivery of healthcare. The altering landscape of healthcare is creating a huge demand for health data analytics. The growth and maturity of healthcare informatics over the past decade has been a prime catalyst in positioning the healthcare industry for the changes posed by reform measures. By understanding the process of analytics, clinical informatics specialists say healthcare providers have the insight necessary to make the process adjustments in the future.(Riskin, 2013)

Decision support systems are ideally interactive systems that allow the decision making physician to come to the conclusion based on a host of information pulled from data bases, personal knowledge, predesigned modals etc. Decision support systems have many benefits such as; patient-time efficiency, speed up process of decision making, promotes learning and training, reveals new approaches in thought process, generates new evidence in support of a decision and encourages exploration and discovery of the decision maker (Bosworth, York, Kotansky, & Berman, 2011). Although these systems require end user expertise, correct inputs and appropriate modals, they also require vast and exstenive information. Immunoinformatics are used to compile vast amounts of data for the immunology field (De Groot A. , Immunomics: discovering new targets for vaccines and therapeutics , 2006). This data includes genetic mapping, protein structures, cytometry data and many other data pools needed by immunologists to make correct decisions. Immunoinformatics face to challenge of compiling this enormous amounts of data in an organised and correct way. This data needs to be mapped into correct diagnostic modals for the physician to use in their decision support system (Barh, Misra, & Kumar, 2010). This data leads to new ways of hypothesis testing for immune responses

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the application of biomedical informatics in many aspects of the healthcare system. This is due to an increasing recognition that a stronger healthcare information system is crucial to achieve a higher quality care at lower costs1. Biomedical informatics is defined as “the scientific field that deals with biomedical data, information and knowledge-their storage, retrieval, and optimal use for problem solving and decision making.”2Biomedical informatics plays significant roles in the healthcare system and it has been applied in various ways in the healthcare system, specifically in the aspect of health care information system such as electronic medical record (EMR), personal health record (PHR), computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems, bar-coding medication administration systems, telemedicine, telehealth, and administrative information systems 2.

Health information is a very important topic as it impacts patient care. It can be a wonderful addition to the ever-changing healthcare system. In addition, health information technology can be very useful in assisting medical personnel, however,

Informatics has two focus areas, public health informatics, and cancer surveillance informatics. According to the CDC (2015), “Public health informatics is the efficient and effective organization and management of data, information, and knowledge generated and used by public health professionals to fulfill the core functions of public health assessment, policy, and assurance.” The CDC also states (2013), “cancer surveillance informatics is the systematic application of information and computer science and technology to cancer surveillance practices, research, and

Electronic Medical Records or Computerized Medical Record System what is it and what are the advantages along with the disadvantages of using this system? That is what we will discuss in this paper.

This keen interest in pursuing a master degree in biomedical informatics is borne out of a desire to acquire knowledge and from a number of experiences and encounters I had during the course of my upbringing, my medical training and practice as a doctor. They served as my earliest contact with health information issues as well as the major drive behind my interest in pursuing a master degree in biomedical informatics.

It is important to understand that using electronic health system helps physicians to provide a more accurate diagnosis which helps to reduce medical errors and incorrect diagnosis which make patients very happy knowing that physicians have their best interest at heart (Kudyba, 2010). In electronic health system, information is structured and well organized in a manner that helps to eliminate the time spent searching for information. Moreover, patients are very happy since electronic health system helps to provide privacy and security of patients’ information and data so as to eliminate the problem of leaving patients’ information unattended on papers so that unauthorized personnel can see and

The Intro to Health Informatics course has provided a broad range of health information that introduces the core concepts in the biomedical community. Throughout this course, my learning experience in health informatics has advance, for I was able to learn a list of materials including: the relationship of biomedical informatics and its related field; the roles of informatics in decision support systems and related health IT applications; and the importance of biomedicine and the use of biomedical information. In the Biomedical Informatics (4th edition) text book, it reflects the outstanding changes in both computing and health care that continues to occur. These changes have set a high rate of interest in the roles that health IT must play in the health care.

When I first enrolled in BMI 5300: Introduction to Biomedical Informatics class, I was very eager and excited to learn the role of biomedical informatics in healthcare organizations and the importance of data capture and analysis in improving public health. One of the major misconceptions I had was that this course would not cover wide range of factors influencing the biomedical informatics field. Much to my surprise, the course provided a comprehensive analysis of factors related to biomedical informatics, including but not limited to EHR systems, interfaces, Health Information Exchanges, Meaningful Use (MU) requirements, and controlled medical vocabularies such as Logical Observation Identifiers Names and

The profession of health informatics is a relatively new one, blending the use of technologies with collecting, organizing, storing, using, and evaluating health information.