The History of Health Informatics
The future of Health Informatics?
- What the future holds in health informatics is up to the imaginative minds…
- The possibilities are endless…
Notable men that elevated the health informatics age…
By: Allen Kramer
Paul Allen and Bill Gates
Notable advancements of the 1970's
Henry Edward
MUMPS programming language, in which allowed the pioneer days of medical databases.
Paul Allen and Bill Gates
Established the Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems that would help lay a foundation for health informatics.
The man initially coined the term “personal computer” and his business eventually created the personal computer called the Altair 8800.
In 1975, they began to program for MITS.
That same year in July, the men founded Microsoft.
Individual and faster computers meant better programs for hospitals and overall quicker patient services.
MYCIN
Stanford University
utilized to help doctors identify certain bacteria in order to recommend the correct dose for patients.
Although, none of these programs were used for commercial use, they laid the foundation of ultimately creating health informatics a possibility within society for everyday usage. (University of Illinois, 2011)
INTERNIST-1
- University of Pittsburgh
- Utilized for providing medical information to regulars
It started with an idea…
Gustav Wager in 1949, formed the first professional organization for informatics. He provided the foundation of knowledge and work that would lead informatics into the healthcare system within Europe and ultimately the rest of the world.
- As technology advances so will informatics. Thus, if one can imagine a life without health informatics, one would think of a slow and unorganized healthcare system.
- Of course health informatics wouldn’t fix all of healthcare’s problems such as health insurance etc., but it allows the world to be able to function at a fast pace that doesn’t inhibit one’s health.
What is Health Informatics?
Health Informatics Today
- Currently, HIPAA is overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is in full effect to implement the use of electronic medical records across the U.S. by 2014.
As defined by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, health informatics is the interdisciplinary study of the design, development, adoption and application of IT-based innovations in healthcare services delivery, management and planning.
Mobile Technologies
- Mhealth has helped address the lack of medical knowledge in foreign countries that lack the proper healthcare staff/facilities.
- All that one may need to operate this application is a smart phone.
An idea that carried into the U.S.
1960s…
France began to developed informatics training programs ensuring quality employees in the field.
Robert Ledley is credited for developing the first CT scanner and is known as “one of the founding fathers” of U.S. informatics. His later research in dental work with the National Bureau of Standards laid the foundation for later development of integrating this technology with medicine.
1980’s…
1970’s
- Healthcare providers were using smaller computers for the same patient database.
- With this change, protocols and standards were implemented on healthcare information transmissions.
- This type of programming could only focus on financial reports and not on individual patient reports.
- LISP language programming was developed that lead to advancements in data storage. Mostly doctors and graduate students began working on the development of diagnostic systems and other medical programs. It was mainly used on patient’s bills, admissions and discharges.
1990’s
- The American Medical Informatics Association was founded in which targeted on educating health care professionals from all work areas.
- Currently the organization has about 3,200 members.
1996
- President Bill Clinton signed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
- The law allowed patients to keep their medical information safe and secure without the information.
Cox, A. (2012). mhealth:what is the real potential?. Retrieved from http://connectedplanetonline.com/commentary/mhealth-real-potential-082410/
Sauter, V. (1999, September 29). What is health informatics?. Retrieved from http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/health_informatics/whatis.html
University of Illinois. (2011). The history of health informatics. Retrieved from http://healthinformatics.uic.edu/history-of-health-informatics/
U.S. National Library of Medicine. (2012, October 25). Health informatics. Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hsrinfo/informatics.html
Wikipedia. (2012, August 30). Micro instrumentation and telemetry systems. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Instrumentation_and_Telemetry_Systems
Westphal, B. (2012). The history of health care informatics. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/about_5659295_history-health-care-informatics.html