Convergent evolution of health information management and health informatics (original) (raw)

Convergent evolution of health information management and health informatics: a perspective on the future of information professionals in health care

Applied clinical informatics, 2015

Clearly defined boundaries are disappearing among the activities, sources, and uses of health care data and information managed by health information management (HIM) and health informatics (HI) professionals. Definitions of the professional domains and scopes of practice for HIM and HI are converging with the proliferation of information and communication technologies in health care settings. Convergence is changing both the roles that HIM and HI professionals serve in their organizations as well as the competencies necessary for training future professionals. Many of these changes suggest a blurring of roles and responsibilities with increasingly overlapping curricula, job descriptions, and research agendas. Blurred lines in a highly competitive market create confusion for students and employers. In this essay, we provide some perspective on the changing landscape and suggest a course for the future. First we review the evolving definitions of HIM and HI. We next compare the curre...

The Health Information Workforce

Health Informatics, 2021

This series is directed to healthcare professionals leading the transformation of healthcare by using information and knowledge. For over 20 years, Health Informatics has offered a broad range of titles: some address specific professions such as nursing, medicine, and health administration; others cover special areas of practice such as trauma and radiology; still other books in the series focus on interdisciplinary issues, such as the computer based patient record, electronic health records, and networked healthcare systems. Editors and authors, eminent experts in their fields, offer their accounts of innovations in health informatics. Increasingly, these accounts go beyond hardware and software to address the role of information in influencing the transformation of healthcare delivery systems around the world. The series also increasingly focuses on the users of the information and systems: the organizational, behavioral, and societal changes that accompany the diffusion of information technology in health services environments. Developments in healthcare delivery are constant; in recent years, bioinformatics has emerged as a new field in health informatics to support emerging and ongoing developments in molecular biology. At the same time, further evolution of the field of health informatics is reflected in the introduction of concepts at the macro or health systems delivery level with major national initiatives related to electronic health records (EHR), data standards, and public health informatics. These changes will continue to shape health services in the twenty-first century. By making full and creative use of the technology to tame data and to transform information, Health Informatics will foster the development and use of new knowledge in healthcare.

Health Information Management: Changing with Time

Yearbook of Medical Informatics, 2017

Summary Objective: With the evolution of patient medical records from paper to electronic media and the changes to the way data is sourced, used, and managed, there is an opportunity for health information management (HIM) to learn and facilitate the increasing expanse of available patient data. Methods: This paper discusses the emerging trends and lessons learnt in relation with the following four areas: 1) data and information governance, 2) terminology standards certification, 3) International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition (ICD-11), and 4) data analytics and HIM. Results: The governance of patient data and information increasingly requires the HIM profession to incorporate the roles of data scientists and data stewards into its portfolio to ensure data analytics and digital transformation is appropriately managed. Not only are terminology standards required to facilitate the structure and primary use of this data, developments in Canada in relation with the standards, ...

Bridging the Gap: A Collaborative Approach to Health Information Management and Informatics Education

Applied clinical informatics, 2015

Health Information Management (HIM) and Health Informatics (HI) were very separate professions when they were first formed. However, with the increasing adoption of electronic health records, the interests of the two fields have become more aligned. To describe the evolution of a joint master's program in health informatics(HI) and health information management (HIM). After analyzing workforce needs, and reviewing both CAHIIM accreditation requirements and existing curricular offerings in separate programs in HIM and HI, a joint program was developed. An HI master's program with a core curriculum for all students and tracks in Data Analytics, User Experience and Advanced Practice HIM was developed. A model for a comprehensive examination, based on the CAHIIM competencies, to be administered prior to and after the core curriculum was also developed. A core and track curriculum that incorporates HIM education as part of the Master of Science of Health Informatics provides a fe...

Redefining the roles of health information management professionals in health information technology

Perspectives in health information management / AHIMA, American Health Information Management Association, 2009

Health information technology (HIT) is being sought as one of the key elements to streamline the process of providing healthcare to improve quality and harness cost. It is hoped that HIT will lead to a more cost-efficient healthcare system than the current one. Surprisingly, there is no agreed definition of HIT in academic literature or government documentation. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act (a provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) defines health information technology as-hardware, software, integrated technologies or related licenses, intellectual property, upgrades, or packaged solutions sold as services that are designed for or support the use by health care entities or patients for the electronic creation, maintenance, access, or exchange of health information.‖ It could refer to a broad base of information technologies used in healthcare from robotics surgery to chronic disease home monitoring devices. 1 However, there is a consensus on the purpose of HIT as the use of devices for the management of information in order to ensure that it is available to the right person at the right time and place. 2-4 HIT is the basis for a more patient-centered and evidence-based medicine with the real-time availability of high-quality information. 5, 6 Despite the various interpretations of the scope of HIT, all healthcare stakeholders agree that it is the premise on which a 21st-century healthcare system in the United States must be based. 7 HIT experts concur that the U.S healthcare system must widely adopt interoperable electronic health records (EHRs) with important components such as computerized physician/provider order entry (CPOE) and e-prescriptions to build a cost-efficient healthcare system. 8-11

Special Issue From research to development to implementation: challenges in health informatics and health information management

Health Informatics Journal, 2008

was developed to support researchers and practitioners in disseminating and presenting their work and to promote discussion on the challenges of undertaking research and development in information management and information and communications technology (ICT) in healthcare. This special issue contains the best papers from the conference, as selected by the Health Informatics Journal editor Rob Procter following the ISHIMR peer review process. In addition to encouraging those involved in researching, developing and implementing information and ICT interventions in healthcare to present their work, ISHIMR encourages health informatics and health information management researchers and practitioners to discuss areas of interest. The distinction between health informatics and health information management has been discussed recently [1]. However, ISHIMR emphasizes the overlap between these areas, and what brings them together is a common interest in how information and ICT can be used to improve health and healthcare. While the papers were selected by Rob Procter for their quality, they represent an interesting cross-section of articles describing research, development and implementation

Health informatics: managing information to deliver value

Studies in health technology and informatics, 2001

Can informatics improve health? This paper answers yes, exploring its components, benefits, and effect on a wide variety of health-related activities. We first examine how information technology enables health informatics, supporting information management and knowledge creation through its four cornerstones. Success factors in using informatics are covered next, including human factors, the role of trained health informaticians, and the importance of matching informatics initiatives with business goals and establishing and measuring value. We demonstrate the potential effect of the Internet on health services through such e-health applications as enterprise-wide patient records, state-of-the-art call centers, and data repositories. For current evidence that informatics is already improving health, we turn to such topics as disease management, telehealth, patient safety, and decision support. As more organizations move informatics from theory into practice and realize its value, the...

Clinical informatics: a workforce priority for 21st century healthcare

Australian Health Review, 2013

This paper identifies the contribution of health and clinical informatics in the support of healthcare in the 21st century. Although little is known about the health and clinical informatics workforce, there is widespread recognition that the health informatics workforce will require significant expansion to support national eHealth work agendas. Workforce issues including discipline definition and self-identification, formal professionalisation, weaknesses in training and education, multidisciplinarity and interprofessional tensions, career structure, managerial support, and financial allocation play a critical role in facilitating or hindering the development of a workforce that is capable of realising the benefits to be gained from eHealth in general and clinical informatics in particular. As well as the national coordination of higher level policies, local support of training and allocation of sufficient position hours in appropriately defined roles by executive and clinical managers is essential to develop the health and clinical informatics workforce and achieve the anticipated results from evolving eHealth initiatives.

Health Information Management Reimagined: Assessing Current Professional Skills and Industry Demand

Perspectives in health information management, 2020

This paper examines the changes affecting the health information management (HIM) professional skill set and industry demand to determine differences affecting practitioners. As the industry continues to experience technological innovation, the responsibilities of the HIM professional are in flux, affecting the required skill set of the changing environment. This research used the American Health Information Management Association salary survey and current job postings to determine whether the workforce has experienced deskilling and whether a theory-practice-gap exists. It also assesses if industry competencies align with the Health Information Management Reimaged perspectives. The results indicate that the workforce has not experienced deskilling, that a theory-practice gap does exist, and that Health Information Management Reimaged is aligned with industry needs.