Introduction to Public Health Informatics Free Document

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH INFORMATICS
Information and communication systems (ICTs) in health care
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PUBLIC HEALTH INFORMATICS
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
About public health informatics.............................................................................................2
Role of ICT in public health management.............................................................................3
Legislation and strategies for ICT applications in health.......................................................4
Assessment of the ICT project...............................................................................................5
Innovation in ICT usage.........................................................................................................6
Constraints to the practical application of ICT......................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Public health informatics (PHI) refers to the use of informatics in enhancing the
health of the population in various aspects such as preparation, prevention, biosurveillance
and promotion of health. PHI focuses on issues relating to information and technology from
the standpoint of groups of people or different communities (Aziz, 2017). Public health
extends not only to the individuals of a community but also to other areas such as
environment, workplace and residence. Public health informatics ensures that the most
appropriate technologies are applied to enhance the delivery of quality data within the
required time and aid in making decisions based on this data. It enables functional
surveillance and monitoring, aids in advanced decision-making and finally, improves the
health of the population. Overall, public health informatics (PHI) qualifies disease
interventions and its prevention for improved health of the community and each individual
who is a part of that particular community (Haque, Dixon & Grannis, 2016). This paper
discusses public health informatics, its role in ICT management, global and national
legislation regulating the applications of ICT in ensuring public health, assessment of the ICT
project, innovation in the use of ICT and ways to ensure the useful application of ICT in
public health.
Discussion
Part one
A rapid transformation in the trends of health technology records has taken place and social
media is one such way to explore these trends. Among the various social media platforms
available, twitter is one such means which can be used for analysis to develop a collective
recent trends and public opinions on the same. It has the inherent features of real=time

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characteristics, publicness, strong means of delivery, individuality and a suitable ambience.
In addition, it allows a unidirectional networking platform unlike the other social media
channels. Several accounts on twitter related to public health are available for review. Some
of these accounts include @Coakeyblog, @DigitalHealth, @Healthypolicies,
@AUMentalHealth, @eHealthAus and @telemedicine_Jn. Three of these accounts will be
reviewed in this paper.
The twitter account @telemedicine_Jn suggests innovations in the management of records
and patient care by the implementation of telemedicine and eHealth programmes. In one of
its posts, it shares a study that describes the effects of telemedicine-based system of clinical
care on the different patients with behavioural issues and its outcomes on temporal and
revenues in the emegerncy departments of rural communities. The learning outcome of this
study posted by the account includes that telehealth consultations are associated with
decreased wait time easy availability of emergency departments in rural settings. It also
addresses the various domains where telemedicine needs improvement to further enhance its
efficacy. In another post, it shares a study based on the role of health informatics in the
disclosure of non-invasive prenatal screening results and its management. This study helped
me learn that a platform delivering automated results is useful in the management of large-
scale revealing of results of non-invasive prenatal screening. This study too, describes the
future directions of this technology in increasing the efficacy and patient experience. A recent
post re-tweeted by the account highlights the urgent needs to cope with coronavirus and the
interventions of telemedicine and e-health in this domain. The learning outcome of this study
was the role of telemedicine as a valuable invention in increasing the access of care to the
patients in need while avoiding crowded facilities to enable safety of the healthcare providers
as well. This study also emphasizes that telemedicine and e-health are innovative
technologies and has enabled home-based health care service and reduced the spread of the