NURS 6431 Week 1 Discussion Essay

As a nurse, you are familiar with the work of Louis Pasteur. Early vaccines and the pasteurization of milk are just two of his prominent contributions to the field of health science. What about the accomplishments of the following individuals: Jean Baptiste Dumas, Antoine Jérôme Balard, Charles Chamberland, and Jean-Baptiste Biot? Do their names sound familiar? Although well respected in their time, these individuals’ names and works are not generally known today; however, they all have one thing in common—they were each mentors or associates of Louis Pasteur. With all great scientists and scientific discoveries, other lesser known or even unknown individuals are instrumental in helping achieve major accomplishments and setting the stage for those who followed. NURS 6431 Week 1 Discussion Essay.

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This week, you are introduced to key pioneers in the field of health informatics, and you explore how their work influences the field today.

Students will:

Assess the impact of early work in informatics on the current field of informatics
Create a flowchart depicting organizational information technology infrastructure*

*The Assignment related to this Learning Objective is introduced this week and submitted in Week 11.

Discussion: Foundational Pioneers in Informatics

The smartphone has become an increasingly valuable tool in the field of medicine. Because of the phone’s small size and powerful computing capabilities, doctors, nurses, and researchers use these smartphones in a wide range of areas. For example, smartphones can be used as an electrocardiogram, to perform ultrasound procedures, to track patient progress, and as a decision support tool for generating diagnoses (Ozdalga, Ozdalga & Ahuja, 2012). Like most innovative technologies, the smartphone and its applications are a result of many years of incremental research and development.

In this Discussion, you focus on those who set the stage for the field of informatics today. By Day 1, your Instructor will assign you one of the pioneers in the field of informatics to research. NURS 6431 Week 1 Discussion Essay.

To prepare:

Read the articles listed in the Learning Resources for your assigned informatics pioneer.
Conduct research in the Walden Library or on the Internet to find additional works by or information about the individual.
Determine his or her area of interest and affiliations in the medical world.
Reflect on the contributions he or she made to the field of informatics. What most interests you? What most surprises you?
Consider how these contributions impact the field of informatics today.
Assess why it is important to be familiar with the foundational documents of nursing informatics.

By Day 4

Post an overview of the individual to whom you were assigned, including his or her principal areas of interest and medical affiliations. Highlight the contributions this individual made to the field of informatics, and explain how these contributions impact the field of informatics today. Comment on the importance of being familiar with the foundational documents of nursing informatics.

By Day 6

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days who researched a different pioneer than you did. Describe what you found most compelling about the information on the individuals researched, and explain how you can use this information to better understand the current state of health informatics.

Evolution of Healthcare Informatics The evolution of healthcare informatics all deprive from increased technology that would allow the medical professionals to access needed and patient records and also be able to update, record, revise and better understand patient needs in order to perform and provide excellent customer service or patient satisfaction. NURS 6431 Week 1 Discussion Essay. Also, given that paper records are so easy to come across, being able to secure patient privacy records allows the health organization to be more secure as a whole. Mailing important information can sometimes take up to a week for the receiver to get the information, but with health informatics with just a click of a button, information is transferred and received. Before the.

That is why it is so important for us to keep our own file and be knowledgeable in our healthcare so we don’t rely on some physician’s lack of information. It is so great to see our physicians using electronic records in their offices. I like that my physician gives me the option of printing everything off for me or putting it on an electronic device with a secure password prior to my leaving. This is very helpful especially if you are seeing another specialist. I have also found that my parents are now able to read their instructions from their PCP since he is no longer hand writing things. This is certainly a time saver and a safety mechanism. The reasons that we have not yet achieved in uniform system are so many including system differentiation and technical matters, each vendor may use different program with different coding and different terminologies. Also another issue is the cost of having hardware and tools that operate successfully, and training the employees. All these issues are making difficult in having uniform system in healthcare informatics. Another reason why we have not achieved a system of interoperatabilty has to do with changing technologies and cost. I don’t necessarily believe it’s the fast changing technology, but the need to improve upon that technology for the best system available. With any product, the larger organizations will obtain it first.

Yasnoff et al(2000)stated that effective public health requires timely, accurate, and informative information from a wide variety of sources. Not surprisingly, public health professionals have been among the earliest users of computers , other information technologies from which numerous and useful computerized information and surveillance systems have been developed(Yasnoff et al, 2000).A more systematic and informed approach to the application of information science and technology needs to be utilized in order to take full advantage of its potential to enhance and facilitate public health activities(Yasnoff et al, 2000).

However, O’Carroll et al(2002)defined public health informatics as the systematic application of information and computer science and technology to public health practice, research, and learning. Public health informatics is primarily an engineering discipline and a practical activity ungirded by science and oriented to the accomplishment of specific tasks(O’Carroll et al, 2002).

How informatics impact or improve public health?

The scope of public health informatics includes the conceptualization, design, development, deployment, refinement maintenance, and evaluation of communication, surveillance, information, and learning systems relevant to public health(O’Carroll et al, 2002). Using strategies and standards, practitioners employ public health informatics tools and training to maximize health impacts at local, state, and national levels(CDC, 2006).They develop and deploy information technology solutions that provide accurate, timely, and secure information to guide public health action(CDC, 2006). NURS 6431 Week 1 Discussion Essay.

Public health informatics involves the application of knowledge and practice from numerous disciplines that contribute to public health(O’Carroll et al, 2002).Advances in public health informatics resulted in public health innovations and added value to interventions by providing the capability for more timely detection of health problems and more complete and efficient health communications (CDC, 2006). Surveillance is an aspect of public health that can be dramatically transformed by the application of information technology(Yasnoff et al, 2000).

How public health informatics is different from medical informatics?

The primary focus of public health informatics is on the applications of information science and technology that promote the health of populations while the primary focus of medical informatics is on the health of specific individuals who presents with a specific disease or condition requiring diagnosis and treatment(O’Carroll et al, 2002).

A primary focus of public health informatics is on the applications of information science and technology that prevent disease and injury by altering the conditions that put populations of individuals at risk while whereas medical informatics is on the application of information science and technology for the treatment of individuals who already have a disease or high risk conditions(O’Carroll et al, 2002).

Prevention approach in public health informatics is not predetermined by professional discipline, but rather by effectiveness, expediency, cost, and social acceptability of intervening at various potentially vulnerable points in a causal chain whereas medical informatics preventive interventions is within the context of each professional discipline with focus on one or a few points in the causal chain(O’Carroll et al, 2002). Public health informatics is not restricted to particular social, behavioral, or environmental contexts whereas medical informatics is restricted to clinical and surgical encounters(O’Carroll et al, 2002).

Public health informatics involves operation within a governmental context requiring responsiveness to legislative, regulatory, and policy directives whereas medical informatics involves operation through private practices, clinics, hospitals, with governmental direction primarily in terms of quality assurance (O’Carroll et al, 2002). NURS 6431 Week 1 Discussion Essay.

References.

O’Carroll, P,W; Yasnoff, W, A; Ward, M,E; Ripp, L,H; & Martin,E;L.(2002).Public health informatics and information systems. Springer.

Yasnoff, W, A; O’Carroll, P,W; Koo, D; Linkins, R, W; & Kilbourne,E;M.(2000).Public health informatics: Improving and transforming public health in the information age. Journal of Public Health Management Practice Vol 6(6); p67-75.

CDC(2006).Informatics and public health at CDC. MMWR Vol 55(SUP02); 25-28. Retrieved from http//www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/su5502a10.htm

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Week 1: Introduction to Informatics in Public Health – Discussion

It was not until 1988 that efforts by the Institute of Medicine described public health with a working definition that outlined its mission, components, and core functions, as a result, the focus began to shift from medicine and treatment of disease to public health and its goals of prevention and health promotion (Schneider 2006). As noted by O’Carroll (2003), with public health reform, an increase in managed care and the revolution of new technology, public health professionals increased the need of public health informatics forcing the transition of traditional methods of information storage to the development of technological software.

Prior to the emergence of public health as a discipline, medical informatics was employed in various healthcare institutions. Hasman and Haux (1996) described medical informatics as discipline that intersects information science, computer science, and health care to address the storage, retrieval, and use biomedical information for problem solving and decision making.NURS 6431 Week 1 Discussion. To keep abreast of an ever changing technological society, public health informatics emerged. O’Carroll, 2003 noted that public health informatics is defined as “the systematic application of information and computer science and technology to public health practice, research and learning” (p5). According to O’Carroll (2003), it is different from medical informatics because it focuses on populations, disease prevention, preventative interventions, and governmental operations.

Informatics is now a discipline that is increasing being integrated into the field of public health. The National Center for Public Health Informatics (NCPHI), for example, is one of the national centers of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Started in 2005, the NCPHI in composed of five divisions and seeks to use information technology to aid in surveillance, outbreak response, and laboratory reporting and other aspects of public health. The goals of the center is to enhance monitoring and research and increase real time access to health information. The National Centers for Public Health Informatics although a fairly new have several tools in place to maximize access to health information (CDC 2009). The use of informatics of found throughout the field of public health.

With the development of new technology, public health informatics seeks to further incorporate new software to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the collection, analysis, and reporting of public health information. To fully embrace the impact informatics can have on public health O’Carroll (2003) claimed that education and training is imperative to decrease the sense of inadequacy among public health professionals and promote the widespread implementation of public health informatics as a discipline. NURS 6431 Week 1 Discussion Essay.