How you can improve health outcomes with a degree in Health Informatics

In today’s healthcare industry, Health Informatics has become crucial, causing a rise in demand for professionals from the field. So, what exactly is Health Informatics? Why is it relevant for the healthcare industry? Here’s everything you need to know

Health Informatics is a specialisation that integrates communications, information technology, and health care to enhance patient care and lies at the forefront of medicine’s current technological transformation. Technology has rapidly transformed various industries, and the healthcare industry is no exception. From robotic arms that perform surgery to nanorobots that administer medications via the bloodstream, technology has taken over the healthcare industry to deliver better and efficient results for patients. 

Using resources such as health information systems to gather, store, retrieve, analyse and use healthcare information for various objectives is essentially what Health Informatics is all about. One of the most important applications of Health Informatics is enabling better collaboration and coordination among healthcare providers, thereby allowing health administrators to plan and manage their organisations in a more transparent and decentralized manner.

Changing the face of healthcare with informatics

Health Informatics is important for several reasons. Here’s how you can improve health outcomes if you pursue a career in Health Informatics.

Improved patient knowledge

Patients with electronic access to their medical information are more aware of what prescriptions they have previously taken and what they will have to take in the future. As a result, patients can convey important information to their clinicians and share it with family, friends, and other patients. Patients may also exert greater influence over their own care and take medical conditions more seriously if they have access to their health recommendations and history.

Enhanced levels of information sharing

Improved access to information benefits everyone, not just patients. Thanks to electronic health records (EHR), physicians can also exchange crucial patient information. This ability to rapidly access and exchange medical information allows doctors to give better, faster treatment and spend more time with their patients. Important health information may also be exchanged across the chain of care from the physician to the pharmacist. Coordinated care teams can therefore operate more effectively, make better diagnoses, and make fewer mistakes since they all have access to the same information. 

Decreased hospitalisation periods

Shorter hospital stays are beneficial to both health systems and patients because they boost facility capacity and resource availability. This guarantees that beds, caregivers, and medications are always available to the patients who require them the most. Informatics systems can also anticipate which patients are most likely to be re-admitted, allowing physicians to better allocate resources for such patients.

Reduced cost burdens

One of the most common complaints from patients and providers is that healthcare is often costly and, at times, resource-consuming. When numerous doctors are seeing a patient and are uninformed of previous prescriptions and procedures done, a lot of money is wasted on repeated processes. Often, patients have no idea what tests they are getting or why they are getting them. They just have faith in their doctor to make the best decisions. 

Thanks to electronic health records, medical practitioners can view a patient’s medical data online to know about the treatments the patient has had done, as well as any remarks or diagnoses that may have been made on the patient. This can lead to greater cost savings not just for the patient but also for the healthcare provider and insurance companies. 

Explore career options in Health Informatics

Health Informatics is a large and rapidly expanding discipline that covers several aspects of healthcare. Therefore, technical understanding of various types of health information systems, administrative abilities, and healthcare knowledge is mandatory to follow this career path. With a degree in Health Informatics, there is no doubt that graduates will be able to readily adapt as the health-tech industry evolves.

At UPES School of Health Sciences, we offer various healthcare-related courses. Want to know more about the programs? For B.Sc. in Health Informatics, click here.

For M.Sc. in Health Informatics, click here.

Click here to enroll in a program in Health Informatics.