Medical Informatics: Concepts and Applications

Medical Informatics is a developing body of knowledge concerned with the use of information and communication technology in support of medical research, education and also for promoting health care delivery. The field focuses on the biomedical information, patient data, and also acquisition, storage, retrieval and optimal use of information for problem solving and decision making. The goal of medical informatics is to help health care workers improve their way of working and the outcome of their performances. There is a variety of classification types for the different applications of medical informatics among which Telemedicine, Electronic Medical Records, Information Retrieval and Decision Support Systems are the most important. Different applications of medical informatics can contribute to better outcomes in patient care and decrease the costs of health care services through error reduction, providing patients with their needed information and supporting physicians with updated information and related knowledge.