Medical Informatics is the systematic study, or science, of the identification, collection, storage, communication, retrieval, and analysis of data about medical care services to improve decisions made by physicians and managers of health care organizations. It is the intersection of information science, medicine and health care. It deals with the resources, devices and methods required to optimize the acquisition, storage, retrieval and use of information in health and biomedicine. Health informatics tools include not only computers but also clinical guidelines, formal medical terminologies, and information and communication systems. Medical informatics will be as important to physicians and medical managers as the rules of financial accounting are to auditors.
Medical Concepts Retrieval - Core Piece of Medical Digital Library
Here shows a chapter from Harvard Medical School's Textbook with all medical concepts highlighted. The initial media format is PDF, which is converted to a raw XML content, which is then parsed and transformed to a typical E-Book XML format. NLM's MetaMap program is used to retrieve all medical concepts from each sentence of the XML content. By moving mouse over to each highlighted medical concept, you can view the concepts as defined in UMLS® Metathesaurus. Click here to view the whole chapter.
History and Epidemiology
Mary Ellen Avery and Douglas Richardson
EARLY HISTORY OF CARE OF INFANTS*
In the late nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth century, deaths from infectious diseases in the first years of life were so common that it is not surprising to find so few students of premature birth and so few articles concerning the special needs of low-birth-weight infants. These small infants were not expected to live. In fact, in the 1940s, some authorities thought of birth weights under 3 pounds as incompatible with life, although rare exceptions have always been noted, as in the case of the Dionne quintuplets, each of whom weighed under 3 pounds. Dafoe, who delivered them on May 28, 1934, wrote, ‘‘There were no scales small enough to measure accurately the separate weights of the babies, but on May 29 [second day] their combined weight was 13 pounds 6 ounces.’’ They were born about 2 months early. Marie, the smallest, weighed 1 1/2 pounds. Yvonne, the largest, weighed nearly 3 pounds. (Accurate scales arrived on the 6th day.) As many infectious diseases came under control, physicians turned more attention to newborn infants. It is believed that Budin in Paris published one of the first articles on premature infants in 1888. At about the same time, German physicians, one of whom was Finkelstein in Berlin, became interested in the problems of premature infants and initiated special programs for their care. In Helsinki in 1912, Ylppo pioneered the research on prenatal and postnatal growth and the pathology of prematurity. Hess, an American physician who studied in Europe, was the founder of the first center in the United States that specialized in the care of premature infants; it was established at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago in 1922. The criterion of 2500 g (5 1/2 pounds) birth weight was used to distinguish a premature from a term infant, and not until much later was the concept of gestational age widely accepted as being a more accurate measure of the stage of development of an infant than weight alone.Physicians who were first concerned with premature infants noted early that these children were unable to maintain their own body temperatures.Various devices, including double-walled metal tubs with the space between the walls filled with circulating hot water, were in use in Europe and Russia in the mid- nineteenth century. Other devices, such as hot-water bottles and electrically heated cribs, were the predecessors of more modern incubators. Occasionally the whole room in which many infants were cared for was kept at high temperatures, paving the way for the modern requirements that constant year-round temperature and humidity be maintained in nurseries where premature infants are cared for.
Medical Informatics Knowledge Base
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Medical Informatics
Medical Informatics (Health informatics)
Medical Informatics is the intersection of information science, computer science, and health care. It deals with the resources, devices, and methods required to optimize the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information in health and biomedicine.
It's a discipline in the study, invention, and implementation of structures and algorithms to improve communication, understanding and management of medical information.
Some Fundamentals of healthcare IT
Electronic Medical Record (EMR) is an electronic record of health-related information on an individual that can be created, gathered, managed, and consulted by authorized clinicians and staff within one health care organization.
Electronic Health Record (EHR) is an electronic record of health-related information on an individual that conforms to nationally recognized interoperability standards and that can be created, managed, and consulted by authorized clinicians and staff, across more than one health care organization.
These are the most commonly used Data Elements of an EHR: Demographics, Problem List, Medications, Allergies, Progress Notes and Other Narrative Documents (History and Physical, Operative Notes, Discharge Summary), Departmental Reports (Pathology/Cytology, GI, Pulmonary, Cardiology etc.), Laboratory Results, Microbiology, Images, Administrative Transactions, Quality Measures, and Privacy and Security.
Personal Health Record (PHR) is an electronic record of health-related information on an individual that conforms to nationally recognized interoperability standards and that can be drawn from multiple sources while being managed, shared, and controlled by the individual.
Health Information Exchange (HIE) is the electronic movement of health-related information among organizations according to nationally recognized standards. HIE is a verb describing a process.
Medical Information Standards and Codings
Health Level Seven (HL7), for the development of international healthcare standards, provides a framework (and related standards) for the exchange, integration, sharing and retrieval of electronic health information.
SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine -- Clinical Terms), is a systematically organized computer processable collection of medical terminology covering most areas of clinical information such as diseases, findings, procedures, microorganisms, pharmaceuticals etc.
ICD-9-CM (International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification) coding system is used to code signs, symptoms, injuries, diseases, and conditions.
CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) codes are published by the American Medical Association. The purpose of the coding system is to provide uniform language that accurately describes medical, surgical, and diagnostic services. A CPT code is a five digit numeric code that is used to describe medical, surgical, radiology, laboratory, anesthesiology, and evaluation/management services of physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers. There are approximately 7,800 CPT codes ranging from 00100 through 99499.
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