Health Informatics
Presented by:
Dr R Tapera
School of Public Health
University of Botswana
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION
1 2 ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS
TELEHEALTH 3 4 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
INTEROPERABILITY
5 6 DATA GOVERNANCE
MANAGING DIGITAL DESIGNS 7 8 CHALLENGES & CONCLUSIONS
INTRODUCTION
• Health informatics (HI)is the transformation of health data into
information and information into knowledge for decision-making (1).
• HI empowers disease interventions and prevention, leading to better
health of individuals and communities.
• Information and data are the lifeblood and currency of the healthcare
system.
• Health professionals with competencies of the digital age.
Informatics principles in clinical
medicine (without computers)
Data Information Decisions
05/10/2005 = 13.0 kg Diagnosis:
08/11/2005 = 13.2 kg
04/06/2006 = 14 kg MALNUTRITION
11/01/2007 = 18.1 kg
21/03/2008 = 17.9 kg
KEY ELEMENTS OF INFORMATICS
STORAGE 02 MANIPULATION 04
storing data that can
be retrieved
ACQUISATION 01 COMMUNICATION 03 DISPLAY DATA 05
Capture accurate, Display data in a way
timely, reliable and that can be easily
complete data. understood and acted
upon
Health Informatician
Understands ideas
Envisions Understands
innovative capabilities,
scenarios opportunities, and
limitations
Security Data Standards Policy
(data)
6
JUSTIFICATION FOR USE OF TECHNOLOGY
• Breaks the silence surrounding
medical errors and consequences.
• Almost 100,000 per year deaths
due to medical errors in hospitals.
• The problem is not bad people in
health care, it is that good people
are working in bad systems that
need to be made safer.
• Reports suggested use of EHRs
ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS
(EHRs)
• EHRs are real-time, patient- Sunday Standard 1 November 2024
centred records that provide Cancer care in troubling times.
immediate and secure
information to authorised users.
• EHRs contain:
- a patient’s medical history
- diagnoses and treatment
- medications, allergies,
immunizations
- radiology images and
laboratory results.
- Surveillance systems
PAPER VS ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS
Allergic reactions
Wrong medication. MEDICATION ERRORS
RESEARCH & KNOWLEDGE
Wrong dosage
COSTS
TIME PASSIVE NATURE
Telehealth
• Telehealth: the delivery of health services over distance (2).
Responsibilities
• Triaging with patients over the phone by using
their medical histories and descriptions of their
conditions.
• Remote patient monitoring and collect critical
health data, such as blood pressure and heart
rate.
• Managing chronic ailments like diabetes and
heart disease.
• Educating patients on health conditions and
their treatment courses.
• Delivering medicine through drones
• Mobile Health text messages as reminders
Examples of Telehealth projects
Country Activities
Kenya, Uganda & Mhealth (Epi Surveyor) is used to track
Zambia immunization coverage and monitor
stocks of vital drugs.
Malawi mHealth applications are used to provide
early-stage antenatal care for mothers.
Botswana Mobile telemedicine systems are used for
specialist consultation and care for
patients with complicated oral lesions.
Example of Telehealth project
ABILIFY MYCITE® (aripiprazole tablets with sensor)
Artificial Intelligence & Data Science
Subfield Uses of AI in Health
Machine learning Disease (e.g., diabetes, heart disease) prediction
Automating tasks
Analysing data for research purposes
Natural Language Processing, Analysis of behaviour & unstructured text on social
Understanding and generation media and prediction of disease outbreaks,
Prediction of loneliness in older adults
Samsung S24 Ultra, translations.
Cognitive search Search engine to evaluate and analyze information
NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING
Artificial intelligence & Data Science
Component/Subfield Uses of AI in public health
Robotic Disinfection of areas, delivery of medications
and food and measuring of vital signs of the
patient
Healthy lifestyle/wellness, mental health,
Virtual nurses (chatbots) reproductive health, weight control and
smoking cessation
https://youtu.be/cMN6vwQErGQ
Automated diagnosis from medical images
Computer vision (e.g., tumour recognition and staging)
Dr R. Tapera
Virtual Nurse Molly
Interoperability for Health Information
Exchange
Interoperability is..
“a property of a product or system, whose
interfaces are completely understood, to work
with other products or systems, present or future,
without any restricted access or implementation”
“the ability of two or more systems or
components to exchange information and use the
information that has been exchanged.”
“The ability of multiple systems, applications, and
devices to communicate with one another by
Source: PAHO .Interoperability in Public Health accessing, exchanging and making use of data in a
standardized and systematic way to achieve
health goals.”
Digital Governance
• Governance framework with clear lines of accountability
• Data security, privacy and confidentiality.
• Data protection and privacy laws, regulations and
frameworks.
• Auditing for breaches and abuses
• De-identification and encryption of data.
Dr R. Tapera
Managing digital design, development
and implementation
Planning and
Analysis
Define
Maintenance
Requirements
Deployment Design
Testing Development
Challenges
• Inferior infrastructure (high-speed internet with a stable
connection).
• Data security and patient privacy
• Unclear legal liability
• No international standards for some of the technologies.
• Lack of a common health vocabulary
• Comprehensive training and support
Conclusion
• Health informatics is creating extraordinary opportunities
to increase efficiency in Healthcare.
• Countries must have health informatics/digital health
frameworks/policies.
• Health workers and the computer science community
must work together to mitigate the challenges.
REFERENCES
1. Yasnoff WA, O’Carroll PW, Koo D, Linkins RW, Kilbourne EM. Public health
informatics: improving and transforming public health in the information age. J
Public Health Manag Pract 2000;6:67–75.
2. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240059184/ 24 Nov/2024
3. Sezgin, E., Oiler, B., Abbott, B., Noritz, G., & Huang, Y. (2022). "Hey Siri, Help Me Take
Care of My Child": A Feasibility Study With Caregivers of Children With Special
Healthcare Needs Using Voice Interaction and Automatic Speech Recognition in
Remote Care Management. Frontiers in public health, 10, 849322.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.849322
4. Visualizing Health and Healthcare Data: Creating Clear and Compelling
Visualizations to ""See How You're Doing"” Katherine Rowell, Lindsay
Betzendahl, Cambria Brown ISBN: 978-1-119-68088-8, December ,2020
5. Tapera, R., & Singh, Y. (2021). A bibliometric analysis of medical informatics and
telemedicine in sub-Saharan Africa and BRICS nations. Journal of Public Health
Research, 10(3), 1903. https://doi.org/10.4081/jphr.2021.1903
THANK YOU
