Health Administration Informatics

The emerging field of Health administration informatics is concerned with the evaluation, acquisition, implementation and day-to-day operation of information technology systems in support of all administration and clinical functions within the health care industry. The closely related field of biomedical informatics is primarily focused on the use of information systems for acquisition and application of patients' medical data, whereas nursing informatics deals with the delivery, administration and evaluation of patient care and disease prevention. What remains unclear, however, is how this emerging discipline should relate to the myriad of previously existing sub specializations within the broad umbrella of health informatics - including clinical informatics (which itself includes sub areas such as oncology informatics), bioinformatics and healthcare management informatics - particularly in light of the proposed "fundamental theorem" of biomedical informatics posed by Friedman in early 2009.

The field of health administration informatics is emerging as attention continues to focus on the costly mistakes made by some health care organizations whilst implementing electronic medical records.

In a recent survey of health care CIOs and Information System (IS) directors, increasing patient safety and reducing medical errors was reported as among the top business issues. Two other key findings were that:

The most likely staffing needs reported by the health care executives are network and architecture support (HIMMS, 2005).

“The government and private insurers are beginning to pay hospitals more for higher quality care–and the only way to measure quality, and then improve it, is with more information technology. Hospital spending on such gear is expected to climb to $30.5 billion next year, from $25.8 billion in 2004, according to researcher Dorenfest Group” (Mullaney and Weintraub, 2005).

This fundamental change in health care (pay for performance) means that hospitals and other health care providers will need to develop, adapt and maintain all of the technology necessary to measure and improve on quality. Physicians have traditionally lagged behind in their use of technology (i.e., electronic patient records). Only 7% of physicians work for hospitals, and so the task of “wooing them is an extremely delicate task” (Mullaney and Weintraub, 2005).

The market demand for a specialized advanced degree that integrates Health Care Administration and Informatics is growing as the concept has gained support from the academic and professional communities. Recent articles in Health Management Technology cite the importance of integrating information technology with health care administration to meet the unique needs of the health care industry. The health care industry has been estimated to be around 10 years behind other industries in the application of technology and at least 10 to 15 years behind in leadership capability from the technology and perhaps the business perspective (Seliger, 2005; Thibault, 2005). This means there is quantifiable demand in the work force for health care administrators who are also prepared to lead in the field of health care administration informatics.

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