Whenever I tell people about the Masters of Health Informatics program at the University of Victoria, they always ask what Health Informatics is. I guess to a certain extent, the term Health Informatics is still fairly new. Here is a brief introduction of what Health Informatics really is.
Health Informtics 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. Sometimes, Health Informatics is referred to as Medical Informatics.
Health Informaticians are expected to have knowledge in:
- architectures of Electronic Health Records and other health information systems used for billing, scheduling, and research;
- decision support systems in healthcare;
- standards and integration profiles to facilitate the exchange of information between healthcare information systems;
- controlled medical vocabularies;
If you want to know more about Health Informatics, Wikipedia has an in-depth explanation on its development, location, legal aspects, and management.
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