The History of Health Care Informatics

Health care informatics uses technology, such as computers and networking, and multidisciplinary health sciences, such as biomedical and pharmacy, to improve patient care. Informatics organizes patient data into a coherent format suitable for smooth health care processes.

Origins

• In 1949, Gustav Wager founded the first professional organization for informatics in Germany. Informatics training programs began during the 1960s in France, spreading throughout Europe and to the United States by 1970. This early form of health care informatics focused on generating bills and patient admissions/discharges. U.S. hospitals that implemented this structure include Latter-Day Saints Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah; Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston; and Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California.

Technological Advances

• The rapid rise and spread of health care informatics is linked to technology and computers advances during the 1970s. The systems of this time used a single mainframe and time-shared computers to process all patient information. By the 1980s, health care practitioners used several small computers on the same patient database. Organizations began to develop standards and protocols for health care information transmissions. This form of informatics was unable to produce customized reports and still focused on financial aspects.

American Medical Informatics Association

• Formed in 1990 from three other organizations, the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) focuses on educating health care professionals from all disciplines in health care informatics standards and systems. The organization has around 3,200 members, and states that by 2010, 10,000 professionals will be trained to use health care informatics effectively.

Network Environment

• Starting in 1995, highly networked computers and databases began to facilitate free-flowing health care information. Focus shifted to patient care and custom reports. Support applications for all aspects of health care, such as drug interaction alerts and electronic prescription writing, contributed to high-quality patient care. Personal computers started to decrease in cost, and became an essential tool in most health care offices, easily incorporated existing informatics systems.

Specialization

• As health care informatics systems become more customizable and flexible, health care workers have taken personalized approaches. Clinical specialists use the informatics systems to concentrate on individual patients. Public health workers use the same system to evaluate health concerns in society and specific populations. Informatics has also been used in research and theory development.