Do we really need health informatics?
Lately I been having a thought: do we need health informatics? Could Information Technology (IT) professionals do the job? Some may say that heath informatitions are IT professionals. But, health informatics is different. You can realize this if you look into informatitions career paths. I have no statistics, but a lot have a medical background. This is clear if you focus on the presence of Nursing Informatics as a recognized specialty at some colleges.
I started raising this question as I am studying system analysis (for my health informatics degree). System analyst’s duty is to analyze and design new information systems. So, a system analyst could go on a journey to explore healthcare institutions and, then, design the perfect healthcare system. Systems are designed by teams. These teams will have users. In our situation users will be healthcare professionals. These teams will also have programmers. Do we really need health informatitions with expertise in computer and healthcare?
Information systems are improving. In the past Information technology professionals were more involved in the day to day operation. Now, users expect a “perfect system” that seamlessly provides them with the information they need (with no IT person bugging them). They expect an internet like experience. What I am trying to say here is my understanding of what was put nicely the authors of System Analysis and Design seventh edition (Sally, G., Cashman, T. and Rosenblatt, H. 2008): the IT group became a supplier of information technology, rather than a supplier of information.
If your answer to my question (do wee need health informatics?) is yes we do need it, then we need a different and demanding form of heath informatics. Health informatitions will be needed during the development of systems. Health informatitions will need to have more computer science expertise. I believe that only someone expert enough in healthcare (knowledge domain) and computer science can know what is possible and what is not possible in healthcare. Those developers who don’t understand how medicine is practiced go overboard with technology designs. And, healthcare professionals who don’t know what is possible don’t know what to ask for.
Note: in my post health informatics is medical or clinical informatics and not biomedical informatics.
