Clinical Decision Support System

As part of improving the delivery of health care system, there should be enough features that will provide the users, particularly the health care providers, enough details that will aid them in decisions when it comes to patient care. One of the key features a system would have is the Clinical Decision Support System. In literature, it is defined as a software or features that enables the patients or the clinicians with mapped clinical knowledge and patient-related information, appropriately organized, filtered and presented to generate data that would influence health decisions and choices to enhance patient care. To maximize the reliability of the system, there would be a need for the following:

Standards and Interoperability

On the previous weeks, we have discussed different ways on how to store medical records electronically. Either be stored through a Provider’s Health Information System or for personal use by the utilization of third-party PHR applications. To reiterate the goal of e-Health—be it on the local or worldwide level—is to have quality access to health care for all, and for that to be achieved, the convenience of timely access for patient’s information through Health Information Systems at any given point of care affects how different collaborating Health Care Providers (HCP) provide informed decisions and individualized care basing on accurate health information.

Due to increased number of different Health Information Systems being used by different health care facilities, it was identified that most of them are based on different data formats and structures, has incompatible operating systems, application servers, and databases. What does that mean? It means that the HIS are fragmented like isolated islands (like the Philippine archipelago, right?) and the information stored stays only within the vicinity of the facility because the system does not have the ability to share the information to another facility (for health care collaboration purposes). It lacks the functionality of interoperability.

For this week, we will be focusing on the aspect of Standards and Interoperability. Before we dive in the driving question, let us define what is interoperability?

Personal Health Record

Last week, we have discussed some details about Electronic Health Records (EHR) and some of the challenges encountered on the implementation in health care facilities. You may read it on the previous post if you haven’t.

As the concept of automation of the medical records, there has been an information system developed for the personal use of the patients. Personal Health Record, or PHR, is an electronic application—can be either web-based and/or mobile application—in which an individual can input their health information that can be easily accessed, managed; it can also be shared to others whom they authorized to view (i.e., health care providers, family members). Of course, this should be done a secure and private environment since the information within is confidential. In addition to that, PHR is separate and does not replace the legal record of any health care provider (HealthIT, 2013).

According to HealthIT.gov,

Electronic Health Records: A Challenge

Last week, we have discussed the different frameworks in Enterprise Architectures that are being used in building information systems in the previous post. We will now be moving further into the topic of Electronic Health Records.

First, let’s define the major term used. What is an Electronic Health Record?

Enterprise Architecture in Healthcare

For this week’s topic is digging deeper of how the healthcare information systems—like the Philippine Health Information Exchange that I have discussed in the previous post—being planned, developed, maintained in the long run.

Handling information systems vary depending on how it is designed to function it is expected to meet. Some are simple, some are quite large and complex. There were instances that simple small IS are single-handedly planned and managed by the end-user; and of course, IS for huge enterprises, due to its large and complex design, there are different subsystems and corresponding conflicts that are needed to tend to and would really need a planning phase for the IS be successfully useful and be able to deliver maximum business value.

It is not new that over the years, the technology and the demands increase. The Organization do not have any choice but adapt and/or improve their existing information technology and infrastructure. However, that doesn’t mean that the increase of the complexity of the system is giving the full benefit it should provide to the organization. There were times that costs are high to develop and maintain IT systems but it doesn’t deliver due to misalignment of the IT goals and what information the system produces with what the business needs. To address this growing concern, this enters the concept of Enterprise Architecture.

What is an Enterprise Architecture, you might ask?

Philippine Health Information Exchange

I have mentioned in the previous post the importance of Governance and Management in Health Informatics. In the Philippine set-up, as stipulated in the 2014-2020 Philippine e-Health Strategic Plan (PeHSP), Department of Health (DOH) and Department of Science and Technology (DOST) teamed up for the development and implementation e-Health in the country.

Governance and Management in Health Informatics

Last week, we have discussed about the various ways on how developing countries sustain their health information system. I’ve prepared a Mind Map and a brief explanation of the usual challenges the countries experiences and what can be done for sustainability. You may check it out here if you want to read about it. We are now into the fifth week! Time flies fast, innit? We have taken a lot of concepts now to grasp the basics of Health Informatics. For this week, we are to discuss about the essence of Governance and Management in Health Informatics. 

Sustainability of Health Informatics in Developing Countries

We are now on our fourth week covering the basics of Health Informatics in our course HI 201. Last week, we focused on the local situation and how we can advance the field of Health Informatics in the Philippines. I created a simple infograph for the topic and if you would want to check it out, you may see it here. For this week, we will look at the field of Health Informatics in its global perspective. Health Informatics has been advancing in different developing countries worldwide but how efficient are their ways and solutions to sustain the system in the long run?

Various studies were conducted to measure the success and failure of the Health Informatic Systems (HIS) across developing countries. However, the accuracy of the studies are weak and not entirely reliable due to the data are generic and approximated, mostly based on assertions and/or generalizations from personal or very limited experience (Heeks, 2005). You might ask, why is the measurement of success and failure of the HIS important? Of course, in this way, we would be able to determine that such HIS are capable of addressing the needs and demands of the health care institutions to solve their identified problems. In addition to that, it would be more helpful if what aspects of the HIS are having challenges be identified in order for the health informaticians and the government to pinpoint and look for solutions to sustain the long term performance of the HIS.

I have plotted below the usual broad categories related to the challenges developing countries experiences (Luna et al, 2014) in a form of mind map. They are usually the challenges that delays or halts the achievement of implementation and sustainability of the Health Informatics Systems (HIS) in developing countries. They are not entirely applicable to all the countries because they are usually taken on a case to case basis.

Health Informatics in the Philippines

Hello, again! It’s that time of the week again for another topic in relation to the subject matter: Health Informatics. Previously, we have connected the concepts of Informatics with E-Health and Global Health. These three concepts impact the way we deliver health care services in magnified ways. If you haven’t seen the post, you may read it here. While that can be seen in broad worldwide perspective, let’s focus more of what we have here in the Philippines and how can we help to advance the technology in terms of health.

What is the Relevance of Informatics to Global Health and E-Health?

For this week’s topic, as part of the HI 201 course, we were required to connect the relevance of the three main concepts—Informatics, Global Health, and E-Health—that definitely have contributions to the health and the delivery of the care to patients and to the community as a whole. I have read couple of recommended articles and listened to podcasts for the definitions and their relevance. It was quite a challenge to plot them down on a simple concept map to show the connection because they are broad and vast to be captured in one glance.