Download PDF
Methods Inf Med 2002; 41(01): 31-35
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1634310
Original Article
Schattauer GmbH

Health Care in the Information Society: What Should Be the Role of Medical Informatics?1

R. Haux
1   University of Heidelberg, Institute for Medical Biometry and Informatics, Department of Medical Informatics, Heidelberg, Germany and University for Health Informatics and Technology Tyrol, Innsbruck, Austria
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

Publication Date:
07 February 2018 (online)

    Permissions and Reprints

Summary

Objective: To discuss the consequences for medical informatics in encouraging and advancing the development of information processing methodology (IPM) and information and communication technology (ICT) to contribute to high-quality and efficient health care.

Methods: Characterization of the current state of ICT, commenting on literature.

Results and conclusions: Medical informatics is the discipline, concerned with the systematic processing of data, information, and knowledge in medicine and health care. Our societies are continuously being influenced by modern IPM and ICT. It can be expected that these developments, leading us into an “information society”, will continue. Three factors may significantly influence health care in the near future: the development of the population towards an aging society, progress in medicine, and progress in informatics. The major aims that will have to be achieved are the (1) patient-centered use of medical data, (2) process-integrated decision support, using high-quality medical knowledge, and (3) comprehensive use of patient data for clinical research and health reporting. Medical informatics research is needed on the electronic patient record, modern architectures for health information systems, and medical knowledge bases. In order to adequately pursue the goal of “transforming health care through innovative use of ICT for the 21st century”, health care professionals are needed, who are well-trained in medical informatics, respectively health informatics. Medical informatics must offer such educational programs and assure a sufficiently high quality of education.

Keywords

Health care - health information systems - information and communication technology - medical informatics education - health informatics education
 

  • References

  • 1 Ball MJ, Lillis JC. Health Information Systems: Challenges for the 21st Century. AANC Clinical Issues in Critical Care Nursing 2000; 11: 386-95.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 2 Ball MJ, Lillis JC. E-health: transforming the physician/patient relationship. Int J Med Inform 2001; 61: 1-10.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 3 Greenes RA, Lorenzi NM. Audacious Goals for Health and Biomedical Informatics in the New Millenium. JAMIA 1998; 5: 395-400.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 4 Greenes RA, Shortliffe EH. Medical Informatics. An Emerging Academic Discipline and Institutional Priority JAMA 1990; 263: 1114-20.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 5 Reichertz PL. Preparing for Change: Concepts and Education in Medical Informatics. Comput Methods Programs Biomed 1987; 25: 89-102.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 6 Stead WW, Lorenzi NM. Health Informatics: Linking Investment to Value. JAMIA 1999; 6: 341-8.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 7 van Bemmel JH. Medical Informatics, Art or Science?. Methods Inf Med 1996; 35: 157-72 (with discussion).
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 8 Haux R. Aims and Tasks of Medical Informatics. Int J Med Inform 1997; 44: 9-87 (with discussion).
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 9 Haux R, Knaup P, Herzog W. et al. Information Processing in Health Care at the Start of the third Millenium – Potential and Limitations. Methods Inf Med 2001; 40: 156-62.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 10 Kulikowski CA. A Micro-Macro Spectrum of Medical Informatics Challenges and Opportunities: From the Informatics of Molecular Medicine to that of Transforming Health Care in a Globalizing Society. Methods Inf Med 2002; 41: 20-4.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 11 Kuhn KA, Guise DA. From Hospital Information Systems to Health Information Systems – Problems, Challenges, Perspectives. Methods Inf Med 2001; 40: 275-87 (see also ref. 12, 63-76).
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 12 Haux R, Kulikowski C. (eds). IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics 2001: Digital Libraries and Medicine. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 2001
    Google Scholar
  • 13 Abu-Hanna Lucas PJF. Prognostic Models in Medicine. Methods Inf Med 2001; 40: 1-5.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 14 Ammenwerth E, Knaup P, Meier C. et al. Digital Libraries and Recent Medical Informatics Research. Methods Inf Med 2001; 40: 163-8.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 15 Höhne H, Pflesser B, Pommert A. et al. A realistic model of human structure from the visible human data. Methods Inf Med 2001; 40: 83-9.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 16 Lee AH, Yau KKW. Determining Effects of Patient Casemix on Length of Hospital Stay: A Proportional Hazards Frailty Model Approach. Methods Inf Med 2001; 40: 288-92.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 17 Lenz R, Kuhn KA. Intranet meets hospital information systems – the solution to the integration problem?. Methods Inf Med 2001; 40: 99-105.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 18 Oliver DE, Shahar Y. Change Management of Shared and Local Versions od Health-Care Terminologies. Methods Inf Med 2000; 39: 278-90.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 19 Cimino JJ. Terminology Tools State of the Art and Practical Lessons. Methods Inf Med 2001; 40: 298-307.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 20 De Keizer NF, Abu-Hanna A. Understanding Terminological Systems II: Experience with Conceptual and Formal Representations. Methods Inf Med 2000; 39: 22-9.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 21 Knaup P, Harkener S, Ellsässer KH. et al. On the necessity of systematically planning clinical tumor documentations. Methods Inf Med 2001; 40: 90-8.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 22 Liu YB, Satomura Y. Building a Controlled Clinical Vocabulary in a Japanese Language Environment. Methods Inf Med 2001; 40: 307-14.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 23 Fessler JM, Grémy F. Ethical Problems with Health Information Systems. Methods Inf Med 2001; 40: 359-61.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 24 Protti DJ, van Bemmel JH, Gunzenhäuser R. et al. Can Health/Medical Informatics be Regarded as a Separate Discipline?. Methods Inf Med 1995; 33: 318-26.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 25 Reichertz PL. Medical Informatics – Fiction or Reality?. Methods Inf Med 1980; 19: 11-5.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 26 Warner HR. Medical Informatics: A real discipline?. JAMIA 1995; 2: 207-14.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 27 Blois MS. Medical Information Science as a “Science”. Med Inform 1984; 9: 181-4.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 28 Collen MF. The origins of informatics. JAMIA 1994; 1: 91-107.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 29 Heathfield HA, Wyatt J. The Road to Professionalism in Medical Informatics: A Proposal for Debate (with discussion). Methods Inf Med 1995; 34: 426-33.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 30 Reichertz PL. Towards Systematisation. Methods Inf Med 1977; 16: 125-30.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 31 Shortliffe EH. The science of biomedical computing. Med Inform 1984; 9 3-4 185-93.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 32 van Bemmel JH. The Structure of Medical Informatics. Med Inform 1984; 9: 175-9.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 33 Pagès JC, Lévy AH, Grémy F, Anderson J. (eds). Meeting the Challenge: Informatics and Medical Education. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 1983
    Google Scholar
  • 34 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. (eds). IMIA Year-book of Medical Informatics 1992. Advances in an Interdisciplinary Science. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 1992
    Google Scholar
  • 35 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. (eds). IMIA Year-book of Medical Informatics 1993. Sharing Knowledge and Information. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 1993
    Google Scholar
  • 36 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. (eds). IMIA Year-book of Medical Informatics 1994. Advanced Communications in Health Care. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 1994
    Google Scholar
  • 37 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. (eds). IMIA Year-book of Medical Informatics 1995. The Computer-Based Patient Record. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 1995
    Google Scholar
  • 38 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. (eds). IMIA Year-book of Medical Informatics 1996. Integration of Information for Patient Care. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 1996
    Google Scholar
  • 39 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. (eds). IMIA Year-book of Medical Informatics 1997. Computing and Collaborative Care. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 1997
    Google Scholar
  • 40 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. (eds). IMIA Year-book of Medical Informatics 1998. Health Informatics and the Internet. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 1998
    Google Scholar
  • 41 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. (eds). IMIA Year-book of Medical Informatics 1999. The Promise of Medical Informatics. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 1999
    Google Scholar
  • 42 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. (eds). IMIA Year-book of Medical Informatics 2000. Patient-Centered Systems. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 2000
    Google Scholar
  • 43 Degoulet P, Fiechi M. Introduction to Clinical Informatics. New York: Springer; 1996
    Google Scholar
  • 44 Shortliffe EH, Perreault E. (eds). Medical Informatics. Computer Applications in Health Care, 2nd edition. New York: Springer; 2001
    Google Scholar
  • 45 van Bemmel JH, Musen MA. (eds). Handbook of Medical Informatics. Heidelberg: Springer; 1997
    Google Scholar
  • 46 Hasman A, Haux R, Albert A. A Systematic View On Medical Informatics. Comp Meth Progr Biomed 1996; 51: 131-9.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 47 van Bemmel JH. Editorial. Methods Inf Med 2001; 40: 168-9.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 48 Haux R, Winter A, Ammenwerth E, Brigl B. Strategic Information Management in Hospitals. An introduction to Hospital Information Systems (in preparation).
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 49 German Ministry of Economy.. Info 2000: Germany’s way to the information society (in German). Bonn: German Ministry of Economy. Bonn: German Ministry of Economy; 1996
    Google Scholar
  • 50 EITO.. The New Edition of the European Information Technology Observatory. EITO 2000 www.eito.com
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 51 Solberg C. Prove it! IT Vendors Need to Show Results to the Healthcare Industry. Healthcare Informatics Online 6/1999. www.health-care-informatics.com/1999/06_99/prove.htm
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 52 Iakovidis I. Towards a Health Telematics Infrastructure in the European Union. In: Balas EA, Boren SA, Brown GD. (eds). Information technology strategies from US and the European Union: Transferring research to practice for health care improvement. Amsterdam: IOS; 2000: 23-33.
    Google Scholar
  • 53 OECD.. Health Data. 2000 oecd.org/els/health/software
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 54 Statistical Yearbook 2000 for the Federal Republic of Germany. Wiesbaden: Statistical Federal Office; 2000
    Google Scholar
  • 55 Jydstrup R, Gross M. Cost of information handling in hospitals. Health Services Research 1966; 1: 235-71.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 56 Garets D, Duncan M. Enterprisewide Systems: Fact of Fiction?. Healthcare Informatics Online 2/1999. www.healthcare-informatics.com/issues/1999/02_99/garets.htm
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 57 HIMSS.. The 11th Annual HIMSS Leadership Survey Sponsored by IBM: trends in Health-care Information and Technology – Final Report. Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society 2000 www.himss.org
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 58 Haux R, Ammenwerth E, Herzog W, Knaup P. Health Care in the Information Society: A Prognoses for the Year 2013. German version: submitted, English version: submitted.
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 59 Moehr JR, Leven FJ, Rothemund M. Formal Education in Medical Informatics. Methods Inf Med 1982; 21: 169-80.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 60 van Bemmel JH, Hasman A, Sollet PCGM, Veth AFL. Training in Medical Informatics. Comp Biomed Res 1983; 16: 414-32.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 61 Hasman A, Albert A, Wainwright P, Klar R, Sosa M. (ed). Education and Training in Health Informatics in Europe. State of the Art – Guidelines – Applications. Amsterdam: IOS Press; 1995
    Google Scholar
  • 62 Mantas J. (ed). Health and Medical Informatics Education in Europe. Amsterdam: IOS; 2000
    Google Scholar
  • 63 Transformation of Healthcare through Innovative Use of Information Technology for the 21st Century.. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Health and Medical Informatics Education. Int J Med Inform 1998; 50: 1-300.
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 64 Recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on Education in Health and Medical Informatics. Methods Inf Med 2000; 39: 267-77.
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar