Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 3
Contemporary Informatics Tools
There are many new tools, systems and approaches that comprise a contemporary
approach to health informatics. Given space limitations and the enormous change in
this regard in the past few years I am emphasizing those new approaches that
I believe will lead us forward with little emphasis on the more traditional technolo-
gies and approaches. This is the most technical chapter in the topic but it is written
as simply and clearly as possible to be comprehensible to the non-technical reader.
A Quick Overview of Computing
Computers first became commercially available around 1950. Early on, it was
assumed that they would be used to solve complex mathematical problems. In time,
and as the technology for storing data advanced, they became increasingly impor-
tant in information management. Today, while sophisticated computers forecast the
weather, simulate nuclear explosions and even the molecular processes within cells,
by far the most common use of computing is to collect, manipulate, store and transmit
information.
Most health information management systems involve sharing data from many
diverse sources within or among organizations. These systems are typically designed
using a paradigm called “client-server computing” which is the architecture found
today in most hospitals and larger clinics. Certain computers, called “clients”,
collect and display information. The client computer is the computer that providers
interact with, viewing medical history or typing in new information about a patient.
Other computers, called “servers”, handle the information storage function for the
clients. Whenever a client needs to display old information or store new informa-
tion, these requests are handled by the servers. There is often a substantial physical
separation of the servers, typically residing in a closet somewhere, and the clients,
which are distributed throughout a hospital or clinic, so a “network” is required to
connect them to each other. For the past few decades this client server paradigm has
been the predominant form of computing.