Health Informatics

Informatics ‫المعلوماتية‬

 Health Informatics (HI) is a specialization aspect of informatics that

connects information science, computer science, and health.

The term “Health Informatics” has been an umbrella concept used

interchangeably with:
❖ Healthcare informatics,
❖ Biomedical informatics,
❖ Medical informatics,
❖ Health and Biomedical informatics.

1. Other related terms

 eHealth : use of Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) for health
 Telemedicine: Provision of healthcare when participants separated by
time and/or distance
 mHealth: use of Mobile devices for health

Where are health informatics used?

 1. Clinical(medical) Informatics.
2. Dental Informatics
3. Imaging Informatics
4. Pharmacy Informatics
5. Public Health Informatics
6. Clinical Research Informatics
7. Bioinformatics
8. Veterinary Informatics

Role of Health Informatics in Improvement of Health Care

Services
1. Decrease prescription error
2. Improves clinical research
3. Increase access to healthcare services
4. Improves quality of care
5. Improves accuracy in diagnostics (Investigations)
6. Power personalized medicine
7. Improves population health
8. Decrease cost of medical care
9. Save lives

How medical informatics decrease the cost of medical care

 Reducing medical error
 Reducing visits to hospitals → Hosp. congestion
 Reducing duplication of tests or prescriptions ordered
 Making care more efficient and effective.

Challenges and Barriers of HI

 1. Cost barriers
2. Data Privacy Barrier
3. Resistant from health professionals and manager
4. Ethical issue Barrier
5. Digital divide Barrier ‫الفجوة االلكترونية‬

Healthcare Information System

A set of components and procedures organized to generate information

which will improve hospital healthcare management by use computers and
communication equipment. It divided into :
A- Clinical Information System‫مهم جدا‬.
• Nursing Information Systems
• Dental Systems
• Laboratory Systems
• Radiology Systems
• Pharmacy Systems
B- Administrative Information Systems‫مهم جدا‬
• Client Registration Systems
• Financial Systems
• Risk Management Systems
• Quality Assurance Systems
• Electronic Medical Records
• Scheduling Systems

Data sources of HIS ‫مهمة جدا بانواعها‬

• Population-based approaches
(censuses, surveys and civil registration)
• Institution-based data
(individual records, service records, and resource records).
E-health in Egypt
The implementation of the e-health system in Egypt comes in a set
of forms:

E-health first level which implements e-database to keep the hospital

information system (HIS) that includes patient, doctor and administration
information.

E-health second level which offers the patient his medical record in
electronic form. Patient electronic medical record (EMR) represents patient
data within a single facility, such as a hospital or a single clinic.

E-health third level which is the integration between hospitals’ systems,

labs, radiology centers and clinics in electronic form.