Categories of Health Informatics

"Health informatics" refers to the way in which health-care organizations organize and store information on patient medicine. Health informatics makes it possible for health-care organizations to coordinate themselves effectively when working with patients. Physicians specializing in diagnostic tools can refer patients to other physicians who specialize in particular diseases and conditions, who can then in turn transfer information to patients and other health-care practitioners---all through electronic information databases. Health informatics constantly seeks efficiency and clarity.

Subjects and Tasks

• Health information falls into categories of subjects and tasks. Subjects are bits of information related to a particular patient, physician or piece of equipment. Tasks are procedures carried out within the health-care institution.

Pyramid

• Operational, tactical and strategic systems follow a pyramidal structure, which provides the health-care organization's overall structure. At the top of the pyramidal structure is strategic information such as global and national policies and resource allocation, according to the Introduction to Health Informatics. The middle section of the pyramid consists of operational information such as information regarding how health-care managers put policies into place, along with how the organization manages its resources facility and finances. The bottom part of the pyramidal structure relates directly to patient care and patient information.

Patient Records

• The Electronic Patient Health Information Record keeps track of all medications, allergies, medical conditions, insurance information and other relevant information that allows health-care providers to make decisions regarding a particular patient, according to the Introduction to Health Informatics. Security represents a major concern in health informatics, since patient medical records are usually confidential and thus require protection from hackers.

New Technology

• Specific information related to new technology often makes up a part of health informatics. Information collected from small robots that travel through parts of the human body such as the digestive system help physicians diagnose and treat diseases. Information collected through telemedicine---such as video conferences and the electronic transferring of diagnostic results, including X-rays---requires an organized storage system, according to the Introduction to Health Informatics. Organizations must also use electronic databases to store computer simulations used to predict the behavior of pathologies.

Financial

• Financial information plays a large role in medical institutions, since health-care costs can be rather high and health-care institutions need a continual influx of funding in order to maintain operation. Financial health informatics focuses on connecting medical costs to insurance policies or patient payments that help pay for these procedures.