How Health Informatics has Evolved from a Concept to a Discipline
The evolution of health informatics has transformed from being a concept in the medical field to being a discipline. Health informatics came to be with the emergence of computers due to the need to handle and managed huge amounts of data. Health informatics entails the management of health records through organizing and analyzing them to improve health outcomes. The management of health data and resources under the health informatics has made it easy and effective to make informed decisions geared towards streamlining workflows, enhancing fast treatment, and improving communication and interaction between different parties. The advantages and uses of health informatics in medical institutions have made it possible for the Health informatics to evolve from being a concept to being a discipline.
Informatics has evolved and become a discipline through the adoption of a global standard in the medical fields. The standardization has been effected in the processes, procedures, protocols, operations, and functions in the course of offering medical care (Gibson, Dixon and Abrams, 2015). For instance, health informatics has standardized data exchange protocols for different disciplines, such as pharmacy and radiology. The standards are such that they can be adopted across the globe, thus qualifying health informatics to be a discipline. Global standards in health informatics are complex but easy to use, thus resulting in the aspect evolving into a discipline.
Health informatics has revolutionized health care and operations associated with it, thus making the field to evolve to discipline on its own. The revolution of health informatics was marked with the enactment of the HITECH Act that makes it mandatory for health institutions and providers to automate medical operations and records in the interest of making them have a meaningful use (Gibson, Dixon and Abrams, 2015). Health informatics revolutions arise from the combination of information technology, the business of medical care, and patient experience to achieve efficiency in the operations. In this regard, success has been experienced by all parties to medical care through full adoption of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) in the operations, improving clinical quality and patient safety, enhancing of effective reporting, consumer-driven healthcare and transparency, and clinical transformation operations. The benefits and operations experienced in health informatics are wide, thus necessitating the concept to be a discipline.
Health informatics has incorporated different functions and operations such as fundamental research to clinical operations and health care information science that need maximum cooperation and coordination, thus necessitating health informatics to be a separate discipline. Research is a critical aspect of any field as it results in innovations, development of new solutions, and technological advancement (Demiris, 2016). In this regard, health research under the health informatics field is wide and highly regarded, for it enhances to positive program in the field of medicine through management promoting effectiveness in medical facilities, analysis of information, and use of information in medical operation. The incorporation of different functions and operations in health informatics has resulted in the growth and evolution of the field, thus making it appropriate to handle it as health informatics as a separate discipline.
Additionally, the evolution of health informatics has grown and prospered, just like the gospel. The growth of gospel can be captured in 2 Timothy 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” The good work of the gospel has increasingly made possible to be accepted across the globe thus experiencing growth and evolution. The gospel has increasingly had an influence from its source and has now spread across the world (Robinson, 2016). People across the world experience the benefits of the gospel, thus inclining them to adopt new ways of life.
Conclusion
The growth and complexity of health informatics from time to time have inclined the concept to evolve into a separate discipline. The evolution and emergence of health informatics to be a separate health discipline have been occasioned by the adoption of global standards, revolution of health care, and incorporation of fundamental research in the medical field.
Reference
Demiris, G. (2016). Consumer health informatics: Past, present, and future of a rapidly evolving domain. Yearbook of medical informatics, 25(S 01), S42-S47.
Gibson, C. J., Dixon, B. E., & Abrams, K. (2015). Convergent evolution of health information management and health informatics. Applied clinical informatics, 6(01), 163-184.
Robinson, C. H. (2016). How the Gospel spread through Europe. Wipf and Stock Publishers.
