Informática em Saúde

Health Informatics and Healthcare Education

Suptendra Nath Sarbadhikari
Supten Institute,
Coimbatore 641 028, India and
Bangladesh Institute of Health Sciences,
Dhaka 1216, Bangladesh
Email: supten@gmail.com

Abstract

Healthcare education is known as perhaps the form of education most difficult to both impart and imbibe. Traditionally, it has been taught and learnt in an inductive way. Nonetheless, the application of information and communications technologies (ICT), in the form of e-learning, has resulted in tremendous progress in the delivery of education to students of almost all disciplines. However, the application of health informatics tools to healthcare professional education has been delayed and inadequate, especially in India.

Health informatics (also called health care informatics, healthcare informatics, medical informatics, nursing informatics, public health informatics, biomedical informatics, or biomedical and health informatics) is a discipline representing 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 care and biomedicine. Health informatics tools include not only computers but also clinical guidelines, formal medical terminologies, and information and communication systems. In short, health informatics is the field that establishes a harmony among individuals, information flow processes, and technology. It is applied to the areas of nursing, clinical care, dentistry, pharmacy, public health, occupational therapy, and (bio) medical research.¹

Compared to the 1990s, recent times have witnessed considerable progress in the level of awareness and acceptance regarding health informatics in India.^2-11 The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India, constituted an Expert Committee on Standards for Electronic Medical Records in September 2010, and therefore, it is high time to introduce the concepts of Electronic Health Records, mobile Health, and other relevant topics and associated training protocols into the mainstream, healthcare professional education. The Working Group, which had been formed by the MoHFW for the proposed India Health Portal, is now close to the materialization of the Health Literacy program, with the final clearance of the bill being awaited from the Cabinet.

Similar to many forms of education, health care professional education is increasingly becoming a competency-based training system. At the same time, there is growing use of e-learning technologies, which can be linked to competencies via emerging e-learning standards. Health care has, thus far, been slow to adopt the competency-based approach and e-learning standards.¹²

The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) recommendations¹³ focus on the educational needs of health care professionals to acquire knowledge and skills in information processing and ICT.

The application of theoretical and methodological advances in the cognitive and learning sciences can greatly enhance the curriculum and quality of instruction in biomedicine and educational programs in biomedical informatics. This is possible by addressing factors such as the processes related to comprehension of medical information, clinical problem-solving and decision-making, and the role of technology.^14,15

As health professionals strive to integrate biomedical advances and clinical practice, education for health professionals is undergoing, dealing with major transformations in light of the changing nature of the health care delivery system; these transformations include the use of technology for ‘just-in-time’ delivery of care, practice of evidence-based medicine, and administration of personalized medical care and learning among others. Cognitive and learning sciences theories have advanced over the past few years; some of these theories can inform medical educators about best teaching and learning practices and their impact on the evaluation process. An understanding of these theories provides a sound rationale for choosing specific instructional strategies and selecting evaluation measures that assess the curricular objectives.

References

1

1. Health Informatics at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_informatics
2. Sarbadhikari SN. Unlearning and relearning in online health education, (Chapter 21) In, Biswas R, and Martin C M (Eds). User Driven Healthcare and Narrative Medicine, IGI Global, Hershey, USA, 2011; 294-309.
3. Sarbadhikari SN. How to make healthcare delivery in India more informed. Education for Health 2010;23:456, Epub August 2010.
4. Sarbadhikari SN. A farce called the National Board of Examinations. Indian J Med Ethics 2010;7:20-22.
5. Sarbadhikari SN. Applying health care informatics to improve student learning, really good stuff, Medical Education 2008;42:1117-1118.
6. Sarbadhikari SN. Medical Informatics and Evidence-based Medicine. In: Babu AN (Ed). Clinical Research Methodology and Evidence-based Medicine: The Basics, BI Publishers, New Delhi 2008:166-176.
7. Sarbadhikari SN and Gogia SB. An overview of education and training of medical informatics in India. IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics 2010:106-108.
8. Sarbadhikari SN. How to design an effective e-learning course for medical education? Indian Journal of Medical Informatics 2008;3:3.
9. Sarbadhikari SN. The state of medical informatics in India: A roadmap for optimal organization. J Medical Systems 2005;29:125-141.
10. Sarbadhikari SN. Basic medical education must include medical informatics. Indian J Physiol Pharamcol 2004;48:395-408.
11. Sarbadhikari SN. Medical informatics-Are the doctors ready? (Guest Editorial) J Indian Med Assoc 1995;93:165-166.
12. Hersh W, et al. Adopting e-Learning standards in health care: Competency-based learning in the medical informatics domain. AMIA 2006.
13. Mantas J, et al. Recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on education in biomedical and health informatics – IMIA White Paper 2010.
14. Patel V, et al. Cognitive and learning sciences in biomedical and health instructional design: A review with lessons for biomedical informatics education. J Biomedical Informatics 2009;42:176-197.
15. Patel V, et al. Towards effective evaluation and reform in medical education: a cognitive and learning sciences perspective. Adv in Health Sci Educ 2009;14:791-812.