Revisiting Public Health Informatics
Future of Informatics
Every year, the processes related to technology and IT continue to evolve. Healthcare is transforming, as well as the way doctors handle the information of patients. New technology paves the way for a fully revitalized program that controls patient data efficiently and finds patterns. The STEM (science, engineering, technology, and math) fields and careers specifically focused on health information technology make this expertise possible (Huusko et al., 2017). For instance, the speech-recognition software aimed to address the time-consuming requirement to document data through typing was introduced. The software for voice recognition has so far been available for a long time, and until recently, the precision required to be helpful in healthcare has seldom been achieved. Even now, the software that is accessible needs to become sophisticated and responsive to the desires of the healthcare provider. The introduction of the two programs will guarantee the successful collection and storage of the essential health data and enable medical specialists to make future decision. Advancements in informatics influences the society both positively and negatively.
Benefits Associated with the Advancing Informatics
Automating manual work and tasks saves patients, healthcare facilities, insurance firms, and even public authorities’ resources and costs. Diagnosis and treatment have now been strengthened, and minor mistakes have increased healthcare efficiency (Sands, 2020). Actual personal medicine and healthcare will be helped by computer science, artificial intelligence, portable and wearable biosensors. The expansion of personalized healthcare that includes customers’ needs, preferences, and information to customize their medical care is of particular importance (Birnbaum et al., 2018). Implementing the personalized health monitoring equipment into the healthcare department informs the decisions by the entrusted medical practitioners. This ensures that they recommend practical health approaches to promote the swift recoveries of the ailing patients. Moreover, the invention of personalized health-monitoring gadgets will make the future of healthcare services mobile.
Currently, EHRs do not communicate effectively with one another in many systems applications. Interoperability is the possibility to coordinate across institutional, local, and domestic boundaries, various information systems, communication devices for accessing, exchanging, integrating, and cooperating information. This innovation supports timely and seamless data portability and prioritizes people’s health globally (Sands, 2020). The architectures, interfaces, and health data exchange standards enable facts, including individuals, to be operated and managed adequately and safely throughout the entire range of care and within all the applicable settings. Patients tracked all their medical history and communicated them with medical professionals before introducing interoperable health IT systems. They hope that their medical network will share all the information or provide physicians with an Oral History from their previous treatment (Huusko et al., 2017). Medical professionals can access all medical data and history of a patient with health IT systems even if they are encrypted in various computer systems on multiple sites.
Negative Consequences of the Advancing Technology
Although the advancing technology is beneficial to the society’s population, overreliance on technology will leave many people unemployed. Investing in technology has seen machines replacing more and more jobs. According to the reports, typists, artisans, construction workers are falling substantially. If any company relies mainly on human labor, it often fails because its technologically sophisticated competitors cannot compete. Thus, the future of informatics could contribute to the increasing unemployment rate.
In conclusion, although a part of the society associated the advancing technology with increased unemployment of qualified medical practitioners, investing in technology will significantly promote the much-needed sustainability in the health department. As globalization, progress on technology, and innovative advancements are incorporated into the discipline, health information technology is becoming even more exciting. The applications are expected to result in rapid data interpretation, measures, judgment, and intelligent information sharing. The future lies in the architecture based on components that adapt to healthcare system workflow and work seamlessly. Thus, it is correct to conclude that the consistent investment in informatics could enhance the health practitioners’ performance and safeguard the welfare of the global society members.
References
Birnbaum, D., Gretsinger, K., Antonio, M. G., Loewen, E., & Lacroix, P. (2018). Revisiting public health informatics: Patient privacy concerns. International Journal of Health Governance, 23(6).
Huusko, J., Kuusisto-Niemi, S., & Saranto, K. (2017). Knowledge management in health technology SMEs. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 245, 878-881.
Sands, D. (2020). Health informatics and why participatory healthcare is key to its future. Society for Participatory Medicine.