Clinical informatics is the field of creating, implementing, utilizing, and evaluating information technology for healthcare. Whether in the form of patient care, medical research, or health improvement, the field of clinical informatics has continued to have considerable growth and importance in our society. Compared to other industries such as finance and banking, automotive and tranportation, or communications, healthcare has been extremely slow to adapt to novel technology for regular use. Only in the past several years has medicine seen a rapid incease of technology; thus, clinical informatics will only continue to develop and mature in the future.
HEALTH INFORMATION EXCHANGE
Health information exchange (HIE) is the process of sending clinical data electronically efficiently and securely for rapid use in clinical care. To date, this area has made significant strides over the past several years, yet, we have only scratched the surface of what is truly possible. In order for this to become more common practice, considerable work must continue to be done at various levels of medicine, with both vertical and horizontal adoption. This is one area that is slow to progress due to the many challenges and obstacles that must be overcome.
