Topic 1 Introduction to Healthcare Informatics Flashcards
What is Healthcare Informatics?
- Framework for…
- Use of…
- Framework for managing and improving patient care services using the latest development in information technology.
- Use of computer hardware and software in an effort to manage and manipulate health care data and information.
Why need IT in healthcare?
- To deliver…
- To provide…
- To contain…
- To use…
- To give…
-To deliver healthcare services to large population.
-To provide fast and quality patient services in hospitals.
-To contain the rising healthcare costs.
-To use the resources in the globalized environment to improve patient care.
-To give fast access to resources to doctors and help in decision making.
What does a Modern Healthcare information system comprise of?
Comprises of both clinical systems and general business systems
What are some missions of clinical systems and general business systems?
- Direct acquisition…
- Delivery…
- Management…
- Remote…
- Connect…
-Direct acquisition of information from laboratory and radiology departments
-Delivery of information to clinical personnel
-Management of hospital medical records
-Remote consultation
-Connect hospitals at geographically separated locations
What are the objectives of a healthcare network?
- Integrate…
- Provide…
- Support x3…
-Integrate all appropriate medical systems and devices (internal or external).
-Provide real-time access to critical patient information.
-Support to automatically generate integrated and consolidated documentation and billing systems.
-Support wireless access via multiple platforms including mobile access.
-Support tele-health services.
State the 4 elements of a Network and what they mean.
- Rules or agreements to govern the messages are sent, directed, received and interpreted
- Messages or units of information that travel from one device to another
- (A medium) A means of interconnecting these devices – a medium that can transport the messages from one device to another
- Devices on the network that exchange messages with each other
What are rules?
-Rules govern every step of the process, from the way cables are designed to the way the digital signals are sent
-These rules are called protocols, e.g. TCP/IP protocol stack
What are the healthcare information standards? (2) Standard for
HL7 (Health Level 7)
- Common standard used in data transfer between medical computing devices.
- Allows the “interoperability between electronic patient administration systems, practice management systems, laboratory information systems, dietary, pharmacy and billing systems, as well as electronic medical record (EMR) and electronic health record (EHR) systems
DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine)
- Standard for handling, storing, printing, and transmitting information in medical imaging.
- Provides reliable integration of image data between imaging, non-imaging modalities, devices and systems.
What are messages and what must they be converted to before being transmitted on the medium?
- Message is a generic term that encompasses text, voice or video information
- The message must be converted to bits, binary coded digital signals, before they are transmitted on the medium
What is a medium?
- Physically carries the message
- Connects the devices
- Can be wired or wireless
What are devices?
End-user devices
- Desktop computer
- Server notebook (or laptop)
- IP phone
Networking devices
- LAN switch
- Firewall
- Router
- Wireless router
What is a network architecture?
Refers to the conceptual plans on which a physical network is built
What must a network architecture support?
Must support a wide range of applications and services
What are the 4 basic characteristics of a network architecture?
- Fault tolerance
- Scalability
- Quality of service
- Security
What is an internet structure?
- The Internet is a hierarchical structure of interconnected networks
- Many individual networks that provide Internet connectivity cooperate to follow accepted standards and protocols
- New products can integrate with and enhance the existing infrastructure
Why is security important?
Compromising the integrity of company assets could lead to serious business and financial repercussions
What are some network safety concerns?
- Network infrastructure security
- Content security
What is Network infrastructure security?
It refers to the physical securing of devices that provide network connectivity and preventing unauthorized access to the management software that resides on them
What is Content security?
- Protecting the information contained within the packets being transmitted over the network and the information stored on network attached devices
- Tools to provide security for the content of individual messages must be implemented on top of the underlying protocols
What are the Consequences of Security Breach?
- Network outage causing a loss of communications and transactions occurring, with consequent loss of business
- Misdirection and loss of personal or business funds
- Theft of intellectual property such as project bids and strategic plans and used by a competitor
- Exposure of confidential customer data, which may result in loss of market confidence in the business
What are the Trends in Networking?
- Increasing number of mobile users - demand for more mobile connectivity to data networks
- New and more capable devices
- Increased availability of services
What are internal components of a computer? PPSDD
- Power supply - Electrical power source
- Power connector
- System board - To pass power, control and electrical signals among the devices
- Drive bays - Holds (non) removable storage media such as floppy drives, CD/DVD drives, and hard drives
- Data cables - Provide control and data access to drive systems
What is an NIC? (Network Interface Card)
- Hardware…
- Unique…
- Hardware through which the computer talks to the other computers or devices in the network
- Used for the physical connection to a network
- Unique MAC address to identify it from other computers on a network
- Wireless/Wired networks
What is MAC?
- A number burned into a NIC
- The MAC is unique, no 2 NICs should have the same MAC. The connection to the network media must match every other computer in the network or they will not be using the same communication language.
