Health informatics

Hope I. Barton, University of Iowa

Abstract

Health informatics is an outgrowth of medical informatics that focuses on the clinical aspects and applications of technology in the delivery of health care. It covers a variety of areas including physiological signaling and digital imaging processing, artificial intelligence, electronic medical records, health information systems, health on the Internet, and telehealth. The evolution of health informatics is driven by both changes in technology and changes in health care. While most developments take place within health care institutions, organizations, and agencies, the increased ubiquity of personal computing and networking and communications technologies over the last decade have opened this area to health consumers as well.