Chapter 1: Overview of Health Informatics

Vocabulary flashcards covering fundamental concepts, roles, historical milestones, legislation, and key organizations in health informatics from Chapter 1.

Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI)

The field concerned with the optimal use of information, often aided by technology, to improve individual health, healthcare, public health, and biomedical research, conceptualized as People + Information + Technology.

Bioinformatics

A subdiscipline of biomedical informatics that is specifically concerned with biological data, particularly DNA and genomic information.

Health Information Management (H.I.M.)

An allied health field traditionally focused on paper medical records and coding, which now addresses electronic health records, privacy under HIPAA, and legal implications of electronic data.

Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA)

The highest level of practice credential in Health Information Management, requiring a baccalaureate degree.

Registered Health Information Technologist (RHIT)

A practice credential in Health Information Management requiring an associate degree.

Certified Coding Specialist (CCS)

A professional certification specialized in medical procedure coding within Health Information Management.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

Information technology with an added emphasis on telecommunications.

eHealth

The use of information and communications technology (ICT) for health.

Telemedicine

The provision of healthcare when participants are separated by time and/or distance.

Telehealth

The pursuit of health when participants are separated by time and/or distance.

mHealth

The use of mobile devices for health.

Digital Health

A broad, overarching term for IT-related aspects of health and healthcare.

ENIAC

The first general-purpose computer built in 1946, which required 1,000 square feet of floor space.

Data

Characters, numbers, or facts gathered for analysis and possibly later action at the base of the information hierarchy.

Information

Interpreted data that provides meaning or context, such as blood pressure readings.

Knowledge

The synthesis of information from several sources to produce a single unified concept.

Wisdom

The highest level of the information hierarchy, occurring when knowledge is used appropriately to manage and solve problems.

Data Science

The science of learning from data that studies methods involved in analysis and processing, proposing technology to improve methods in an evidence-based manner.

Data Analytics

As defined by IBM, the systematic use of data and related business insights developed through applied analytical disciplines to drive fact-based decision making for planning, management, measurement, and learning.

Chief Information Officer (CIO)

The traditional title of the IT leader in an organization, viewed as a strategic role with an average tenure of 11 years, commonly held by individuals with master's degrees such as an MBA.

Chief Medical Informatics Officer (CMIO)

A physician executive reporting to the CIO or CEO who helps implement new technologies, gain staff acceptance, deliver training, and develop privacy and security policies.

Chief Nursing Informatics Officer (CNIO)

A nurse informatics executive reporting to the CIO or CEO who assists with technology adoption, training, and clinical policy formulation.

Clinician Informatician

A 'go to' nurse or physician in smaller organizations who acts as an early adopter and bridges clinical practice with IT experience.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009

Federal legislation aimed at improving medical quality, patient safety, efficiency, care coordination, and health information privacy, which authorized the HITECH Act.

Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act

Legislation enacted under ARRA that provided financial incentives for certified EHR adoption, state health information exchange, 62 Regional Extension Centers, informatics curricula, and Beacon Communities.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010

Federal legislation that expanded Medicaid coverage to approximately 20 million uninsured Americans, created PCORI, established the CMS Innovation Center, and instituted the Readmission Reduction Program.

Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)

An initiative created by the Affordable Care Act of 2010 to fund and guide comparative clinical effectiveness research.

American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA)

A professional informatics organization founded in 1989 with approximately 5,000 members representing physicians and biomedical researchers; publisher of JAMIA and Applied Clinical Informatics (ACI).

Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)

A global health IT society with 50,000 individual and 570 corporate members that hosts an annual conference of over 40,000 attendees, provides educational resources, and operates HIMSS Analytics.

American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)

A professional organization founded in 1928 for paper-based medical record librarians that grew to 103,000 members in 2016, focusing on health data management, coding, privacy, and analysis.

HealthData.gov

A federal online repository making government healthcare datasets freely available to organizations, developers, and researchers across multiple operational and clinical categories.

Institute of Medicine (IOM)

Also known as the National Academy of Medicine; an organization that issued landmark reports To Err is Human (1999) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), documenting 98,000 yearly medical error deaths in the US and recommending 12 types of HIT.

Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)

An agency reporting directly to the Secretary of HHS that oversees national health IT strategy and established the Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC) in 2015.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

A division of HHS charged with improving healthcare safety and quality that maintains the HIT Knowledge Library, the National Resource Center for HIT, and the HIT Portfolio Program.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

A federal agency insuring roughly 100 million Americans that disbursed around $22 billion in HITECH EHR incentives by April 2014 and transitioned the 'Meaningful Use' incentive program into 'Promoting Interoperability' in 2018.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

A federal public health agency that supports the Public Health Information Network, conducts disease surveillance using health IT, and provides the Health Data Interactive program.