The Emergence of Healthcare Informatics

Running head: RESPONSE TO DISCUSSION POSTS
RESPONSE TO DISCUSSION POSTS
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RESPONSE TO DISCUSSION POSTS1
Discussion Response 1
The emergence of healthcare informatics and healthcare data management systems have
improved healthcare organizational functioning in a variety of ways (Owolabi and Evans 2018).
These include: improved patient documentation, enhance diagnosed, faster deliverance of
healthcare services, improved inter-departmental data exchange and overall patient satisfaction
(Hassan et al. 2019). However, the incorporation of information technology within healthcare
organizations raises several concerns pertaining to the security, confidentiality and accessibility
of healthcare information (Abouelmehdi, Beni-Hessane and Khaloufi 2018). This is a major
concern in the case of healthcare databases, as evidenced by a recent news article I read which
report 2149 incidences of healthcare security breaches between the years 2010 to 2017. Thus, the
question arises, what organizations must do to prevent such security risks (Carroll 2018). The
answer lies in inter-professional functioning – while information technology (IT) specialists may
be required to engage in timely database monitoring and incorporation of data encryption
facilities, there is a need for healthcare professionals to communicate to IT specialists the
importance of patient privacy and legal as well as ethical principles of service quality followed
across the organization (Gordon, Fairhall and Landman 2017).
References
Abouelmehdi, K., Beni-Hessane, A. and Khaloufi, H., 2018. Big healthcare data: preserving
security and privacy. Journal of Big Data, 5(1), p.1.
Carroll, L., 2018. Health data breaches on the rise. [online] U.K. Reuters. Available at:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-health-data-security/health-data-breaches-on-the-rise-
idUKKCN1M524J [Accessed 20 Jan. 2020].

RESPONSE TO DISCUSSION POSTS2
Gordon, W.J., Fairhall, A. and Landman, A., 2017. Threats to information security—public
health implications. N Engl J Med, 377(8), pp.707-709.
Hassan, M.K., El Desouky, A.I., Elghamrawy, S.M. and Sarhan, A.M., 2019. Big Data
Challenges and Opportunities in Healthcare Informatics and Smart Hospitals. In Security in
Smart Cities: Models, Applications, and Challenges (pp. 3-26). Springer, Cham.
Owolabi, K. and Evans, N., 2018. Clinical informatics tools for healthcare quality improvement:
a literature review. Inkanyiso: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 10(1), pp.74-89.