Not All Informatics are Created Equal

Author: Mehdi Rais, M.D.

The term Biomedical Informatics is so widely and loosely used that it is easy to forget that there are levels of specialization within the discipline. A simple job search in the field of Informatics will only amplify the confusion as often the terminologies within separate sub-specialties overlap.  

One of the first white papers written on the Informatics discipline and specialization subtypes was offered by the American College of Medical Informatics and published in 2004 in JAMA. In the article, the field of Biomedical Informatics had been organized around the applications of Informatics into four specific areas of specialization:

1. Clinical Informatics: utilizes biomedical informatics to address the patient care domain.
2. Bioinformatics: studies how data is represented and transmitted within a given biological system and often begins at its most molecular level.
3. Imaging Informatics: concerns all processes of image use and include the techniques to acquire and/or convert images into digital form, analyze and manipulate this data, and use the images in a variety of ways in their digital form.
4. Public Health Informatics: utilizes data of biomedical informatics and applying these processes to address problems that may arise in the public health domain.

The field of Clinical Informatics is further broken down into sub-specialties that include: Health Informatics, Medical Informatics, Nursing Informatics, Dentistry Informatics and Pharmacy Informatics.  Additionally if there is a focus on healthy individuals as the user, this is defined as Consumer Health Informatics.

As you can see, there are several specific degrees of specialization under the umbrella of Informatics.  Which area do you fall under?

About the author:

Mehdi Rais is a physician, medical lecturer, medical writer, and self-proclaimed “tech nerd.” When Dr. Rais isn’t honing in on his trades, he spends his time scouring publications and the web for the latest trends in technology in the medical field, new applications in Health Information Technology, and emerging legislative & regulatory changes in medicine. 

Dr. Rais' interests are greatly focused in the realm of mobile computing and the use of cell phone technologies in the clinical setting.  He received his Medical Doctorate from St. Christopher’s College of Medicine after spending his undergraduate years at the University of Texas at Dallas.  

Dr. Rais can be reached on LinkedIn or followed at his blog. Look for him on Twitter @DrMedBlog.

EMR: No Shortage in Standards

As we transition to a full EMR system, one of the largest current challenges to our health care model is the need to share information at different sites: hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, tertiary care centers, etc. To help facilitate this interoperability between health care sites, standards are needed to guide us towards this end.

Even to begin to set such standards and/or goals towards interoperability, there first must first be a focus to aggregate patient data towards a unified standard. In setting the stage for this ‘consensus’ standard, all stake holders who represent some specific arm of medicine must come together and define the standards that allow them to work together across sites and distances.

Many of these respective groups that create standards have a tight relationship; some have absolutely no connection whatsoever. Thus, it’s easy to see this creates an inherent redundancy in standards in some areas of gap in others. Such redundancy and scattered coverage in standards have created the need for harmonization.

 

The graphic above represents the 43 major international health care standard developing organizations (SDO's) that are working together to create seamless interoperability. Many of these organizations have a need for assistance, and are free to join and have openings for volunteer opportunities. If you are interested in breaking into HealthIT, anyone of these organizations could mark the start of your transition towards this career.

As I continue to navigate through my HITECH program, I will continue to highlight many of these organizations and give you a bird's eye view of their role in the EMR interoperability equation. If you'd like to learn more about EMR transition and the mountain we are facing, click here.

About the author:

Mehdi Rais is a physician, medical lecturer, medical writer, and self-proclaimed “tech nerd.” When Dr. Rais isn’t honing in on his trades, he spends his time scouring publications and the web for the latest trends in technology in the medical field, new applications in Health Information Technology, and emerging legislative & regulatory changes in medicine.

Dr. Rais' interests are greatly focused in the realm of mobile computing and the use of cell phone technologies in the clinical setting. He received his Medical Doctorate from St. Christopher’s College of Medicine after spending his undergraduate years at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Dr. Rais can be reached on LinkedIn or followed at his blog here. Look for him on Twitter @DrMedBlog.