Understanding digital health
Individual health records contain data needed for personal health care and management. Here are links to relevant international information that might assist your development of safe and cost effective health care systems.
Once health record data are aggregated in de-identified formats, these same data may be used for research, management, administrative and governance purposes. Optimum use of such aggregated data improves a nation’s public health services by location, resource management and enables new treatment/care and knowledge discoveries.
Benefits can only be achieved by implementing sound data and system standards governance infrastructures. Data and systems standards are developed to facilitate system efficiency, safety, connectivity and accurate data transfer for clinical care, aggregation, linking and decision making purposes without any loss of meaning during the process.
The basics:
- Start with agreed sharable data and processes See the standards available
- Common data models and definitions. Link to open resource Clinical Data Manager
- Digital health is not just about information exchange though information exchange is a key part of digital healthcare. Standards on information exchange
- Standards knowledge management tool (SKMT) for international standards definitions and and to help you find relevant standards.
Publications and Presentations
EHE team members regularly present at national and international conferences. Here are some links to recent and significant presentations.
2021
Heather Grain (GeHCo)
Coding complexity level assessment and representation. This publication identifies a standardised method for consistent evaluation of the coding complexity of an episode of care, to assist in consistent educational outcomes and coder training progression.
2020
Heather Grain:
IT a Transformative Opportunity or Health Information Management – keynote presentation to International seminar Medical Record and Health Informatics 2020, Indonesia.
Illusions of data quality -challenges of the data supply chain
Heather Grain FAIDH Global eHealth Collaborative – Presented at Australian Digital Health Summit 2020
2018
Evelyn Hovenga:
Connectivity and Semantic interoperability – it’s all about data supportive national infrastructure
Ursula Hübner; Toria Shaw; Johannes Thye; Nicole Egbert; Heimar de Fatima Marin; Polun Chang; Siobhán O’Connor; Karen Day; Michelle Honey; Rachelle Blake; Evelyn Hovenga; Diane Skiba; Marion J. Ball,
Technology informatics Guiding Education Reform OTIGER: An international recommendation framework of core competencies in health informatics for nurses , Methods Inf Med 2018 June; 57 (Suppl 1) e30-e42
2017
Heather Grain: Illusions of interoperability – a focus on meaning
2015
Hovenga E.J.S and Grain H
An information paradigm shift is required to realise EHR benefits – presented to MedInfo conference 2015 (Brazil)
Electronic Health Records – The source of little data for big data Presented at HIC2015 – Health Informatics Australia.
2010
Mantas J, Ammenwerth E, Demiris G, Hasman A, Haux R, Hersh W, Hovenga E, Lun KC, Marin H, Martin-Sanchez F, Wright G;
IMIA Recommendations on Education Task Force.
Recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on Education in Biomedical and Health Informatics. First Revision.
Methods Inf Med. 2010 Jan 7;49(2):105-120 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20054502
Textbooks
Measuring Capacity to Care Using Nursing Data presents evidence-based solutions regarding the adoption of safe staffing principles and the optimum use of operational data to enable health service delivery strategies that result in improved patient and organizational outcomes. Readers will learn how to make better use of informatics to collect, share, link and process data collected operationally for the purpose of providing real-time information to decision- makers. The book discusses topics such as dynamic health care environments, health care operational inefficiencies and costly events, how to measure nursing care demand, nursing models of care, data quality and governance, and big data.
The content of the book is a valuable source for graduate students in informatics, nurses, nursing managers and several members involved in health care who are interested in learning more about the beneficial use of informatics for improving their services.
Key Features
- Presents and discusses evidences from real-world case studies from multiple countries
- Provides detailed insights of health system complexity in order to improve decision- making
- Demonstrates the link between nursing data and its use for efficient and effective healthcare service management
- Discusses several limitations currently experienced and their impact on health service delivery2020
Roadmap to Successful Digital Health Ecosystms
A Global Perspective
Hovenga and Grain 2022
Found out why healthcare systems don’t deliver what you hoped for, and learn the way to better, cheaper and more efficient solutions to digital health.
Clinicians, Consumers, Business executives, Governments and IT specialists need to engage with the health industry, take action and commit to making use of evidence-based solutions by adopting open platforms, standard information models, technology neutral data repositories, and computable clinical data and knowledge (ontologies, terminologies, content models, process models and guidelines), to achieve improved patient specific, organizational and national health outcomes.
This publication, edited by Dr Evelyn Hovenga and Heather Grain, explains different perspectives and local environments in need of digital health transformation and effective data interpretation. This text includes an analysis of current data/information and technology governance, data supply chains, costly adverse events, models of care, HR management, workforce planning, system connectivity, data sharing and linking, small and big data and change management. All proposed solutions are based on real-world scientific, social, and political evidence. A future vision for effective health ecosystems is presented.
The third edition of Mastering Medical Terminology Australia and New Zealand is the go-to textbook for medical terminology. Written by Sue Walker, Maryann Wood and Jenny Nicol, the text has been fully updated to reflect current medical terminology and the local healthcare environment.
Terms are demystified through an interactive and easy-to-follow instructional process. Students learn the basics of word structures first, then tackle the more complex terminology associated with the human body as a whole and then each body system. The terminology associated with special applications is also included.
The textbook includes a pronunciation guide and practice exercises, examples of terminology in context and diagrams and illustrations to enhance understanding.
The single best resource for learning how technology can make the nursing experience rewarding and successful
With contributions from the world’s top experts, Essentials of Nursing Informatics provides the information and insights readers need to manage and process data to improve healthcare. Topics include the use of computers to nursing administration, education, and research; electronic medical records and personal health records; coding; and government, clinical, and private sector system requirements. This revised and updated edition covers the latest changes in technology, administration, policy, and their effects on healthcare informatics in the U.S., and it brings readers up to date on computer systems, information theory, continuum of care information technology systems, educational applications, and research applications.
2019
The single best resource for learning how technology can make the nursing experience rewarding and successful
With contributions from the world’s top experts, Essentials of Nursing Informatics provides the information and insights readers need to manage and process data to improve healthcare. Topics include the use of computers to nursing administration, education, and research; electronic medical records and personal health records; coding; and government, clinical, and private sector system requirements. This revised and updated edition covers the latest changes in technology, administration, policy, and their effects on healthcare informatics in the U.S., and it brings readers up to date on computer systems, information theory, continuum of care information technology systems, educational applications, and research applications.
2019
Delivering the desired benefits from using information technology in healthcare requires a high degree of data standardization, effective governance and semantic interoperability between systems in the health industry. Corporate chief executive officers and company boards need to be more aware of their governance responsibilities. This publication explains these concepts to assist the reader to collaboratively work with others to meet these challenges. People who would find this book particularly useful include:
- Policy and decision makers
- Healthcare professionals
- Health information managers
- Health informatics and ICT professional
Covering:
- Data governance
- Semantic interoperability
- IT in healthcare
- Information security governance
- 2013
Studying for Health Informatics Certification, or just looking for a good introductory text to this dynamic and growing area – this text is the one. Written by international experts in a wide range of topics including:
- Introductory fundamentals
- Electronic Health Records
- IT and the relationship to clinical practice
- Basic Health Informatics
- IT to support healthcare service delivery management
- Supporting clinical research and practice
Hovenga E.J.S, Kidd M, Garde S, Hullin C (Eds), 2nd Ed Health Informatics: an overview IOS Press, Amsterdam 2010 HI Book IOSPress flyer – Australia
If you are developing courses, curricular, competencies or other educational offerings for Health Informatics you NEED this text. Produced by international experts from the IMIA Education working group this is still the ‘go to’ text for education in health informatics. Material includes:
- Governance for student interchange
- Education and competency standards
- Curriculum and degree structures
- Outcomes and recognition
- Delivery and evaluation methodology
Mantis J and Hovenga E, Global Health Informatics Education: IOS Press, Amsterdam 2004