Health Informatics

Application of information technology to the health sector has tremendous potentiality for efficacy of health care delivery institutions and provision of cost-effective health care. Health care delivery institutions will require information technology to meet their client demands and stay competitive, since, the future for them lies in cost-effective health care. General purpose information technology solutions are usually inadequate for specialised needs of the health sector. That is why a host of solutions, standards and services are emerging to meet needs of the health sector. Application of information technology to the domain of health care delivery is referred to as Health Informatics. The Institute has been making concerted efforts to build the health informatics infrastructure (HII) in India. Major HII activities of the Institute are (a) human resource development for health informatics, (b) health informatic standards, and (c) health care identification systems.

Dr. R.S. Rama Devi, Director Medical Education, conferring certificates to CHISA 2001 graduates, on 31st August, 2002.

To build skilled manpower for health informatics, IHS runs different kinds of academic and training programmes which have been described above. A major determinant of the rate of adoption of information technology in the health care sector is the personal computing skill of health care professionals. If doctors, nurses and other health care professionals are comfortable with personal computing, the rate of information technology adoption in health care institutions is likely to be faster. Towards this goal, the Institute incorporates a personal computing component in all its training programmes and takes up fully dedicated training courses in use of personal computers by health care professionals. Inputs on EpiInfo (WHO software on epidemiological information system) as a part of the training on Managing Primary Health Care in Remote areas is an example of the former. The programme on smart use of computers by health executives is an example of the later. IHS has recently adopted a regulation for setting up a health care identifier (HCId) system, which will be an useful infrastructure for electronic transfer of information between health care and related institutions. The Institute also develops soft ware to meet needs of health system research. In addition software for health care institutions are developed as a part of the Institutes educational program of developing human resources in health informatics.