The aim of this field is to improve patient care and create better healthcare solutions. Improvements are enabled by gathering and analyzing vast amounts of data. In the US it is already thriving, according to an article on the smartblogs.com website. As more and more governments are shifting from paper to electronic health records, health informatics is getting more and more important. Employment in this field is expected to increase quite steeply.
Trends in health informatics
The recent comprehensive reform of the US healthcare system had a huge impact on the medical industry. All medical records are now required to be electronic. Science and technology’s role in health informatics dominates as the leading trend of the industry. Experts in IT now create better protocols for treating patients. Hospital re-admissions rates can fall by a high percentage.
Patient care is improving through technology
Better patient experiences are enabled by evaluating electronic health records. There is increased diagnosis accuracy and heightened security of medical records. Health informatics also substantially decreases the rate of human error, since tracking drug interactions, allergies and side effects has improved.
Room for error is decreased
Records are more accessible now and are easier to transmit than the old paper ones. They can be checked in very remote locations and updated in almost no time. Complete, up-to-date information about patients is available. There is high demand for health informatics. Universities are creating new healthcare informatics degree programs and technical instruction and medical training are combined with hands-on experience.
-jk-