Editing Health informatics (section)

{{Short description|Computational approaches to health care}}
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[[File:DiffusionMRI glyphs.png |208px|Brain imaging informatics]] [[File:X-ray of hand, where bone age is automatically found by BoneXpert software.jpg |92px|BoneXpert software for assisting physicians]] <br />
[[File:UltrasoundBPH.jpg |95px|Imaging Informatics]] [[File:Операционная. ФЦН (Тюмень) 01.JPG |205px|Computer-based telemedicine devices in operating room]] <br />
[[File:DeepQA.svg |200px|Decision-making information systems in healthcare]] [[File:User-FastFission-brain.gif |100px|Neuroinformatics in healthcare]] <br />
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|below = Medical [[informatics]] introduces [[Information processing (psychology)|information processing]] concepts and machinery to the domain of [[medicine]].}}

'''Health informatics''' combines [[communications]], [[information technology]] (IT), and [[health care]] to enhance patient care and is at the forefront of the medical technological revolution.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal | vauthors= Mohd J, Abid H, Ravi P | date= 17 December 2023 | title=Health informatics to enhance the healthcare industry's culture: An extensive analysis of its features, contributions, applications and limitations |volume=1 | issue=2 | journal=Informatics and Health. | pages= 123–148 | doi=10.1016/j.infoh.2024.05.001 | doi-access=free }}</ref> It can be viewed as a branch of engineering and applied science. 

The health domain provides an extremely wide variety of problems that can be tackled using computational techniques.<ref name=":2">{{cite journal | vauthors = Sami HR, Reynolds NC | veditors = Talavera F, Busis NA, Lorenzo N | title = Medical informatics in neurology: What Is Medical Informatics?, Signal Processing, Image Processing | journal = EMedicine: Medscape's Continually Updated Clinical Reference. | url = https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1136989-overview |date=7 May 2021}}</ref>

Health informatics is a spectrum of [[multidisciplinary approach|multidisciplinary]] fields that includes study of the design, development, and application of computational innovations to improve health care.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Nadri H, Rahimi B, Timpka T, Sedghi S | title = The Top 100 Articles in the Medical Informatics: a Bibliometric Analysis | journal = Journal of Medical Systems | volume = 41 | issue = 10 | page = 150 | date = August 2017 | pmid = 28825158 | doi = 10.1007/s10916-017-0794-4 | s2cid = 7309349 }}</ref> The disciplines involved combine [[healthcare]] fields with [[computing]] fields, in particular [[computer engineering]], [[software engineering]], [[information engineering]], [[bioinformatics]], [[bio-inspired computing]], [[theoretical computer science]], [[information systems]], [[data science]], [[information technology]], [[autonomic computing]], and [[behavior informatics]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9781447144731|title=Biomedical Informatics: Computer Applications in Health Care and Biomedicine|date=2014|publisher=Springer-Verlag|isbn=978-1-4471-4473-1| veditors = Shortliffe EH, Cimino JJ |edition=4th |location=London|doi=10.1007/978-1-4471-4474-8|language=en}}</ref>

In the healthcare industry, health informatics has provided such technological solutions as [[telemedicine]], [[surgical robot]]s, [[electronic health record]]s (EHR), [[Picture Archiving and Communication System]]s (PACS), and decision support, artificial intelligence, and machine learning innovations including IBM's [[IBM Watson|Watson]] and [[Google]]'s [[DeepMind]] platform.

In [[academic institution]]s, health informatics includes research focuses on applications of [[artificial intelligence in healthcare]] and designing medical devices based on [[embedded system]]s.<ref name=":2" /> In some countries the term informatics is also used in the context of applying [[library science]] to data management in hospitals where it aims to develop methods and technologies for the acquisition, processing, and study of patient data,<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Imhoff, M | title = Evaluating Critical Care | chapter = Health Informatics |  pages = 255–256 | date = 2002 | doi = 10.1007/978-3-642-56719-3_18| isbn = 978-3-540-42606-6 }}</ref> An umbrella term of biomedical informatics has been proposed.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Biomedical Informatics: Computer applications in health care and biomedicine |date=2021 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-030-58720-8 |editor-last=Shortliffe |editor-first=Edward Hance |edition=5th |location=Cham, Switzerland |editor-last2=Cimino |editor-first2=James J. |editor-last3=Chiang |editor-first3=Michael F.}}</ref>