Health informatics is characterized by integrating information technology in health care (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) (2017a). Furthermore, healthcare informatics emerged in the 1970’s as computer language to assist with patient billing (Kramer, 2012). Fast forward to 1990’s which emphasized regulation (Kramer, 2012). Finally, the 2000’s highlighted the transition to the electronic healthcare record (EHR) and immediate access to data thereby improve patient care (Kramer, 2012). The intentions of this paper are to provide an overview of health informatics history, identify specialties within health informatics, review specialties’ impact within healthcare, and challenges in the future. …show more content…
Nursing informatics has played an intricate role in developing documentation via electronic health record (EHR). According to Ozbolt & Saba (2008) nurses served as mediators between disciplines to assist in achieving language that was comprehensive resulting in increased semantic interoperability (Ozbolt & Saba, 2008). Nurses are at the center of patient care implementing treatment plans thereby promoting interdisciplinary care including services such as pharmacy and radiology.
According to HIMSS (2017b) pharmacy informatics is an area that promotes the advancement of medication administration and ordering by increasing autonomation, efficiency, accuracy, and safety. In addition, the pharmacist is a vital role in the health care team utilizing the EHR in multiple capacities such as documentation, communication, medication evaluation and assessment to produce the best patient outcomes (Nelson, Poikonen, Reese, El Halta, & Weir, 2016).
Lastly, radiology informatics is the final specialty area to be reviewed. Radiology informatics highlight the immediate access of digital images captured during ordered procedures via EHR and/or electronic cloud (American Board of Imaging Informatics, 2017). Having these images available in real time as the potential to improve care as it can assist in more comprehensive diagnoses (Hsu, El-Saden, & Taira,