Abstract:

Informatics is a relatively new topic in healthcare. A simple definition of informatics in healthcare is the application of computing and communication technology to improve the physical, psychological and physiological welfare of a patient. At a macro level, it is how we use technology to improve ‘Quality of Life’. The average healthcare or hospital episode costs in US are over $5000 USD and many insurance companies are forced to send patients to countries such as India, Philippines, Singapore for cheaper healthcare. That somewhat takes care of cost, but what about friends and family by your side or being in a foreign country having a heart surgery? Is language a problem? We do not have all the answers but the global healthcare is struggling with rising healthcare cost. Informatics as defined above has been proven effective in creating a technologically safe, efficient and cost effective healthcare delivery.
The education process of healthcare informatics is at a very adolescence stage in today’s global economy, even in developed countries such as US, UK, Australia and Canada. Most caregivers are far from understanding the concepts of informatics and do not seem to have a general literacy of information technology. The fallacy remains; many nations are claiming patients from affluent countries because of rising healthcare cost under the banner of ‘healthcare outsourcing’. However, we fail to see any noticeable initiative by either the domicile insurance companies or the host countries to expose nurses and allied health professionals to basic information technology literacy concepts.
Taking into account the need, an initiative is being considered to create an on-line five week certification program on the basics of medical informatics. The program encompasses definition, concepts, examples, technologies and applications of informatics for healthcare professionals. In this article we shall demonstrate the need, structure, global perspective of healthcare informatics. Furthermore we will describe the overall curriculum directed to a global healthcare community, contents, topics and the nature of lectures to be delivered on-line for worldwide healthcare professionals. The focus is not to make them experts but motivate them to be aware of an information technology based science that has a promising impact on efficient delivery of healthcare services, either in the U.S or a progressive country like India. The typical cost for an instructor assisted certification program with a topic such as this extends anywhere from $1500-$3500 USD. Our goal is to keep the fee affordable for the global healthcare community which may be a fraction of the market cost as stated above. After all, we all need to contribute towards improving the “quality of life” on earth.

Keywords:

Healthcare Informatics, Health Information Technology, Information Technology in Healthcare.