The Importance Of Health Informatics In Public Health During A Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the focus on health informatics and healthcare technology for policy makers and healthcare professionals worldwide. This book contains the 110 papers (from 160 submissions) accepted for the 18th annual International Conference on Informatics, Management, and Technology in Healthcare (ICIMTH 2020), held virtually in Athens, Greece, from 3 – 5 July 2020. The conference attracts scientists working in the field of Biomedical and Health Informatics from all continents, and this year it was held as a Virtual Conference, by means of teleconferencing, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent lockdown in many countries around the world. The call for papers for the conference started in December 2019, when signs of the new virus infection were not yet evident, so early submissions were on the usual topics as announced. But papers submitted after mid-March were mostly focused on the first results of the pandemic analysis with respect to informatics in different countries and with different perspectives of the spread of the virus and its influence on public health across the world. This book therefore includes papers on the topic of the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to informatics reporting from hospitals and institutions from around the world, including South Korea, Europe, and the USA. The book encompasses the field of biomedical and health informatics in a very broad framework, and the timely inclusion of papers on the current pandemic will make it of particular interest to all those involved in the provision of healthcare everywhere.

For several years now, both eHealth applications and digitalization have been seen as fundamental to the new era of health informatics and public health. The current pandemic situation has also highlighted the importance of medical informatics for the scientific process of evidence-based reasoning and decision making at all levels of healthcare. This book presents the accepted full papers, short papers, and poster papers delivered as part of the 31st Medical Informatics in Europe Conference (MIE 2021), held virtually from 29-31 May 2021. MIE 2021 was originally due to be held in Athens, Greece, but due to the continuing pandemic situation, the conference was held as a virtual event. The 261 papers included here are grouped into 7 chapters: biomedical data, tools and methods; supporting care delivery; health and prevention; precision medicine and public health; human factors and citizen centered digital health; ethics, legal and societal aspects; and posters. Providing a state-of-the-art overview of medical informatics from around the world, the book will be of interest to all those working with eHealth applications and digitalization to improve the delivery of healthcare today.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of health data, technology, and access to health informatics. The applications of several information technologies in the context of healthcare are proving instrumental in pandemic control. These technologies were already actively used in the healthcare sector before the pandemic. However, the pandemic has resulted in researchers reassessing how these technologies could have better assisted with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and how they may mitigate the threat of future pandemics. Health Informatics and Patient Safety in Times of Crisis provides a fresh perspective on how healthcare informatics has managed the current pandemic and how improved healthcare informatics could help in a future crisis. Covering topics such as digital public health, misinformation, and knowledge management, this premier reference source is an indispensable resource for medical professionals, hospital administrators, public health officials, community leaders, international leaders, libraries, medical students, medical professors, researchers, and academicians.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many global industries, none more so than healthcare, and has necessitated the need for health informatics innovations that can bridge time and space to provide timely care. It has also emphasized the need for a system-level informatics infrastructure to support the healthcare management of populations at a macro level, while also providing the necessary support for front line care delivery at a micro level. However, the need for change at a fast pace does not remove the need for an evidence base to support health technologies. This raises fundamental questions about how the informatics tools required can be delivered at pace without compromising the quality and safety of such tools. This book presents papers from the biennial conference on Context Sensitive Health Informatics, CSHI 2021, held as a virtual event on 15 and 16 November 2021. The theme of the 2021 conference was: The Role of Informatics in Global Pandemics, and this book includes 18 papers on a variety of topics, divided into 4 sections: health information management in the COVID-19 context; implementation of new practices and technologies in healthcare; sociotechnical analysis of task performance and workload in healthcare; and innovations in design and evaluation methods of health technologies. The book provides an overview of innovative health information systems rooted in robust scientific research on context and health information technology, and will be of interest to all those working in the field of health informatics.

Over the last three decades enormous effort has gone into strengthening public health information systems (HIS). They are now a key element of health sector reform initiatives, but are growing in complexity. This is driven by the increasing diversity of technology platforms, increasing demands for information, the multitude of actors involved, and the need for data security and privacy. Initiatives like Universal Health Coverage and Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases are expected to place further burdens on all health systems. However, they will pose particular challenges in resource-constrained settings, such as low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where health systems have struggled to provide quality care. Public Health Informatics discusses the challenges that exist in the design, development, and implementation of HIS. Key problem areas, such as sub-adequate data and problems of inter-operability, are analysed in detail and the book looks at possible approaches to addressing these challenges in LMICs. Case studies critically appraise the experiences of countries and health programmes in the building of HISs, to determine the successes and failures of varying approaches. Finally, the book explores how future systems in developing countries can be shaped. The expert author team has two decades experience in over 30 LMICs, and includes researchers and practitioners from the fields of informatics, public health, and medicine. This uniquely comprehensive account of information systems in the public health setting will be of use to the wide range of people working in this broad cross-disciplinary field, from software developers to public health practitioners and researchers.

This revised edition covers all aspects of public health informatics and discusses the creation and management of an information technology infrastructure that is essential in linking state and local organizations in their efforts to gather data for the surveillance and prevention. Public health officials will have to understand basic principles of information resource management in order to make the appropriate technology choices that will guide the future of their organizations. Public health continues to be at the forefront of modern medicine, given the importance of implementing a population-based health approach and to addressing chronic health conditions. This book provides informatics principles and examples of practice in a public health context. In doing so, it clarifies the ways in which newer information technologies will improve individual and community health status. This book's primary purpose is to consolidate key information and promote a strategic approach to information systems and development, making it a resource for use by faculty and students of public health, as well as the practicing public health professional. Chapter highlights include: The Governmental and Legislative Context of Informatics; Assessing the Value of Information Systems; Ethics, Information Technology, and Public Health; and Privacy, Confidentiality, and Security. Review questions are featured at the end of every chapter. Aside from its use for public health professionals, the book will be used by schools of public health, clinical and public health nurses and students, schools of social work, allied health, and environmental sciences.

Data, informatics, and technology are now among the most important aspects inspiring health professionals and informaticians to improve healthcare for the benefit of patients. This book presents the proceedings of the 19th annual International Conference on Informatics, Management, and Technology in Healthcare (ICIMTH 2021), held as a virtual event due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on 16 and 17 October 2021 in Athens, Greece. The ICIMTH conferences are a series of scientific events which bring together scientists working in the field of biomedical and health informatics from around the world. The 2021 conference examined the field of biomedical and health informatics in a very broad framework, presenting the research and application outcomes of informatics from cell to populations, and including a number of technologies such as imaging, sensors and biomedical equipment, as well as management and organizational aspects, including legal and social issues and the setting of research priorities in health informatics. A significant number of the papers included here relate to the COVID-19 pandemic. Providing an insight into the latest developments in biomedical and health informatics, the book will be of interest to all those working in the field.

Health IT is a major field of investment in support of healthcare delivery, but patients and professionals tend to have systems imposed upon them by organizational policy or as a result of even higher policy decision. And, while many health IT systems are efficient and welcomed by their users, and are essential to modern healthcare, this is not the case for all. Unfortunately, some systems cause user frustration and result in inefficiency in use, and a few are known to have inconvenienced patients or even caused harm, including the occasional death. This book seeks to answer the need for better understanding of the importance of robust evidence to support health IT and to optimize investment in it; to give insight into health IT evidence and evaluation as its primary source; and to promote health informatics as an underpinning science demonstrating the same ethical rigour and proof of net benefit as is expected of other applied health technologies. The book is divided into three parts: the context and importance of evidence-based health informatics; methodological considerations of health IT evaluation as the source of evidence; and ensuring the relevance and application of evidence. A number of cross cutting themes emerge in each of these sections. This book seeks to inform the reader on the wide range of knowledge available, and the appropriateness of its use according to the circumstances. It is aimed at a wide readership and will be of interest to health policymakers, clinicians, health informaticians, the academic health informatics community, members of patient and policy organisations, and members of the vendor industry.