SCHOOL OF MEDICAL

LABORATORY SCIENCE
HEALTH INFORMATION FOR MEDICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE (LEC.)
SAN PEDRO COLLEGE – MAIN
CAMPUS
Instructor’s Name: Christian John Villahermosa, RMT
AY 2022 – 2023 - 1ST SEMESTER LESSON NO.3

processing, analyzing, maintaining, and safe keeping of all

OUTLINE patient data and records.
I. Overview of Health Informatics
A. Health Information Technology
B. Health Care Software Systems
C.Health Interoperability Ecosystem
D.Health Informatics In The Cloud
E. Health Informatics In The Philippines

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
● Define health information technology
● Discuss health care software systems and health information
ecosystem
● Explain the advantages and disadvantages of health
informatics in the cloud Note:
● Describe the status of health informatics in the Philippines ● If we have both the means and the systems we have what we
call Health informatics.
I. OVERVIEW OF HEALTH INFORMATICS → It's the application of both technology and system in the
healthcare setting; it refers to the acquisition, storage ,
A. HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY retrieval and use of healthcare information to ensure optimal
collaboration between patients and their healthcare
Defined (Rouse, 2016) providers.
● “... The area of IT involving the design, development, creation,
use, and maintenance of information systems for the healthcare B. HEALTH CARE SOFTWARE SYSTEMS
industry.”
● Automated and interoperable Healthcare information systems ● 5 TYPES OF HEALTHCARE SOFTWARE
are expected to: → EHR (ElectronicHealth Record)
1. Improve Medical Care → PHR (Personal Health Record)
2. Lower costs → HIE (Health Information Exchange)
3. Increase efficiency → PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications System)
➔ the faster the consultation the better → VNA (Vendor Neutral Archives)
4. Reduce error
➔ technology has facilitated the development of ● These software solutions are developed to improve the patient
systems that are proven to reduce medical experience and improve Hospital management processes.
errors and to save more lives
5. Improve on patient satisfaction
EHR (ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD)
(Kushniruk and Borycki, 2017) health information technology: ● aka EMR (Electronic Medical Record)
● Patients official health record in digital form
● Provide innovation to healthcare delivery ● Information shared across multiple healthcare providers and
● Connection among users and stakeholders agencies.
→ Systems such as electronic health records decision support ● A digital storage of patients personal information, medical
systems and personal health records are promising and are history and doctor recommendations.
becoming widely deployed worldwide. ● Shared across multiple healthcare for healthcare providers and
agencies.
● One of the fundamental components of the Health Information
Technology Infrastructure.
● Owned and stored by Healthcare Provider

PHR (PERSONAL HEALTH RECORD)

● Persons self-maintained and documented health record
● An electronic application through which a patient can maintain
and manage their health information in a private, secure and
confidential environment.
● Health Information technology- The means to collect, store ● Patient collect information about their health
manage, analyze and optimize patient data your health ● Patient incharge updates on its own health.
information.
● Health Information Management- The process or the
system that directs and ensures an organized system of

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 SCHOOL OF MEDICAL
LABORATORY SCIENCE
HEALTH INFORMATION FOR MEDICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE (LEC.)
SAN PEDRO COLLEGE – MAIN
CAMPUS
Instructor’s Name: Christian John Villahermosa, RMT
AY 2022 – 2023 - 1ST SEMESTER LESSON NO.3

→ Information includes: → if we want our health interoperability ecosystem to work or if

▪ Allergies you want to have an efficient health interoperability
▪ Family history ecosystem, it must provide an information infrastructure that
▪ Medications taken uses technical standards policies and protocol to enable
▪ Surgeries performed seamless and secure creation, exchange, and utilization of
▪ Hospitalization record health information
→ since we are talking about a health interoperability
HIE (HEALTH INFORMATION EXCHANGE) ecosystem, we need to use standards, policies, and
● Health data clearinghouse which is comprised of healthcare protocols just like how a system operates; and as part of the
organizations with interoperability pact to share data among key players of the ecosystem, we need to be organized as
their health information technology systems. well
● It collects and distribute information
● makes use of data standardization practices to integrate a D. HEALTH INFORMATICS IN THE CLOUD
uniform patient's data, no matter who enters the data into the
EHR. ● the Advent of cloud technology is a large pool of easily usable
and accessible virtualized resources such as hardware
Two widely used types of Health Information Technology that development platforms and our services
help manage and store the patient’s medical images, ● a new way of delivering computing research resources and
especially from the radiology department (which used to be services
the primary repository for medical images): ● the role of cloud technology is undeniably significant in our
everyday lives
Both PACS and VNA integrate videology into the main ● currently 83% of healthcare organizations are making use of
hospital workflow. Even though they are similar in that aspect cloud-based applications and it is changing the landscape of the
(storing, collecting, managing medical images), they are healthcare system and health informatics
different in terms of their features, capacity, and limitations ● both benefits and threats exist

PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications ADVANTAGES OF CLOUD TECHNOLOGY

Systems) ● provides an integrated and efficient patient care
● Securely stores and digitally transmits electronic images and → offers a single access point for patient information which
clinically-relevant reports allows multiple doctors to review the patient’s health data or
→ facilitates data capturing, arranging, archiving, and sharing of laboratory results. In this way, physicians can spend more
medical images or medical image files time deciding and performing patient treatment instead of
→ it is the front end system which is intended to enhance waiting for a long time from different departments for the data
workflow with attention to storage and retrieval or result
→ instant access to patient records
VNA (Vendor Neutral Archives) ● better management of data
● integrate radiology into the main hospital workflow → The growing population means more data that needs to be
● stores medical images in a standard format and interface, accumulated so the accumulation of electronic health
making them accessible to healthcare professionals regardless records will allow more meaningful data or will allow more
of what proprietary system created the images meaningful data mining that can better assess the health of
→ for data migration or the back end system that is geared the general public so more data can mean more
towards long-term backup and archiving opportunities to identify Trends in diseases and crises and in
that way we can save more lives.

C. HEALTH INTEROPERABILITY ECOSYSTEM DISADVANTAGES OF CLOUD TECHNOLOGY

Define (Healthcare Information and Management System ● Potential Risks to Personal Information
Society (HIMSS), 2017) as… → The strength of cloud technology is as the saying is the
● “a composition of individuals, systems, and processes that want characteristics that makes it vulnerable to data breaches.
to share, exchange, and access all forms of health information, Medical records of the patients may be subjected to theft or
including discrete, narrative and multimedia” other violations of privacy and confidentiality, fortunately
safeguards may be put in place to minimize such threats
→ Within such a technological ecosystem, there are key players such as encryption, proper data disposal and other security
in the successes of health informatics because each is failures. It’s much better if our healthcare system invested in
involved in the creation exchange and and use of health cyber security.
information or data
● Cloud Setup Seems Cumbersome
→ interoperability - ability of a system or a product to work with → Transition from a traditional to an automated system, might
other systems without special effort on the part of the be difficult for some members of healthcare organizations
customer that may not be familiar with Cloud technology, however this
technology will be adapted by more institutions in the future
and with proper education and illustration of its functions,
hesitant practitioners may be able to see its advantages.
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 SCHOOL OF MEDICAL
LABORATORY SCIENCE
HEALTH INFORMATION FOR MEDICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE (LEC.)
SAN PEDRO COLLEGE – MAIN
CAMPUS
Instructor’s Name: Christian John Villahermosa, RMT
AY 2022 – 2023 - 1ST SEMESTER LESSON NO.3

E. HEALTH INFORMATICS IN THE PHILIPPINES

● It is pioneered by the University of the Philippines

Manila with the establishment of the medical
informatics unit or MIU it was loosely practice since
1980’s

● The computer program that was used is the IBM word

processors.

● In 1988 the National Telehealth Center was born with

the objective of developing cost effective tools and
Innovations in the realm of information and
Communications technology or ICT for improving Health.

CHITS
● Healthcare and its projects include Community Health
Information Tracking System

● Community Health Information Tracking System is an

electronic medical record developed through the
collaboration of the ICT community of nthc and health
workers and it is primarily designed for use in the
Philippine Health Centers and disadvantaged areas we
all also have LAMP which is an acronym denoting one of
the most common solution stats for many of the web's
most popular applications which released under the
general public license or GPL.

● Named finalists at the Stockholm challenge 2006 and

one of the top three e-government projects in the
Philippines by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation or
APEC Digital Opportunity Center or ADOC.

● but used to be manually done like business records for

four to five minutes or worse an hour can now be
executed within a couple of seconds and the
implementation of CHITS has indeed resulted in higher
efficiency rate among health workers, more time to spend
in providing patient care.

● The progress in health informatics in the Philippines isnt

that progressive because of certain issues that hamper
the progress of Health informatics
→ Lack of interest, the professionals and national officers
seemed to be not interested with Health Informatics.
→ They see it more as a novelty rather than a profession.
→ Lack of priority because it seemed like the government had
other priorities.
→ Benefits are not apparent to decision makers.
→ Large initial expenditure so when professional and economic
constraints come into play, priorities and shift towards clinical
responsibilities at the expense of Health Informatics.

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