initial post must be 600 words- A major obstacle to the global adoption, expansion, and progress of eHealth is the lack of available healthcare workers trained in informatics and adequately prepared to work in this growing field. What unique skill set(s) are needed to work in this evolving discipline? What obstacles present themselves as informatics expands globally (e.g., education/language barriers, differences in terminology, legal issues, access to technology, regulatory policies, etc.)? How might these challenges be overcome?

For your replies, respond to 2 classmates, identifying at least 1 strength and 1 weakness in each classmate’s reasoning.

* please use scholarly sources and the Bible for citations in APA FORMAT

respond to classmate #1 in 460 words – Data management is becoming an increasingly daunting challenge in healthcare. (HiMSS, 2018) In our book Nelson and Staggers (2018), states that “Healthcare is one of the largest sectors of the economy in many parts of the world.” (Nelson & Staggers, 2018) Health is a driver of the overall quality of life. All over the world, the health sector is predicted to be the largest source of job creation for the next decade. Because of this trend of health expansion, the world would need millions more health workers, especially ones that can understand and use health informatics. With the growth and expansion of eHealth, the need for skilled and educated individuals for this growth is high.

I found a few articles that gave their opinions on what skill set is needed in the growing field of healthcare informatics. According to the University of Illinois at Chicago website, they stated that there are five skills needed to succeed in health informatics. They are Interpersonal skills, ability to problem solve, programming knowledge, communication skills, and ability to work with health data systems. (University of Illinois Chicago, 2018) At theinformaticsnurse.com (last updated 2018) has six. They are clinical experience and competence; critical thinking, analysis, and problem-solving; technical/computer skills (this should be a given, but they specifically said it so…); business correspondence skills; interpersonal skills; and project management skills. (theinformaticsnurse.com, 2018) As you can see, they are pretty simuliar. All the other websites I ran across follow these skill set. I have to say I agree with this but I would like to include willingness to teach. To hold knowledge is profond, to teach is change the world. The bible teaches that we should share our knowledge. Matthew 5:19 “Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Leadership and organization skills are essential when the informatics is also a project manager. These skills are needed to bring a project from conception to implementation, managing schedules, and timelines, while keeping the project’s budget and other issues inline. The reason why I brought up project management because that will be what a healthcare informatics job will need. Project management provides the necessary to implement any changes, from weighing facts and to make necessary decisions. Effective management and technical support are required for the success of large scale projects.

For informatics to expand globally, there are several obstacles that needs to be overcome. A lack of semantic interoperability is one of these obstacles. “Key barriers include issues related to the terminology used in describing and documenting health such as cost and accessibility, gaps in exhaustiveness, and lack of granularity” (Nelson & Staggers, 2018) The lack of some countries not having the correct infrastructure. “Large sustainable implementations at a country or regional level are less common. This lack of sustainability and scalability prevents improvements in quality, efficiency, and equity outcomes” (Luna, Almerares, Mayan, Gonzàlez Bernaldo de Quiròs, & Otero, 2014). Trust in the system because of the fear of identity theft. Effective communication with patients and health care workers. Patient and their provider’s relationships rely on good communication. Factors that influence this communication include cultural differences, low health literacy, and language differences. Education is another obstacle. The growth of health informatics brings new jobs. With new jobs, there will be a need to train these individuals. At this time these are very few people with the skill set to work in this field. This has caused a need for a strong human resource strategy, as well as a long-term plan to meet the demand (Nelson & Staggers, 2018).

The purpose of informatics is to help everyone make better decisions, no matter what their role, either patient, provider, or the company that owns the software. Informatics is the structure needed to clarify complex relationships, reveal relationships between similar or related information from different sources, and link that information to the patient. Throughout the world is has been considered a digital divide. This division has been caused be a gap to share information and inconsistency between countries in the number of internet users. Cell phones have assisted in bridging this gap. Of course, education is the main one to help with the needs. Incentives from health organizations to have this knowledge. From paying for the school to train their workforce, to offering workshops that they can attend.

References

HiMSS. (2018). Data Management and Patient Medical Record. Retrieved from HiMSS Transforming health through informaton and technology: https://www.himss.org/data-management-and-patient-…

Luna, D., Almerares, A., Mayan, J., Gonzàlez Bernaldo de Quiròs, F., & Otero, C. (2014). Health Informatics in Developing Countries: Going beyond Pilot Practices to Sustainable Implentations: A Review of the Current Challenges. Health Informatics Research, 3-10.

Nelson, R., & Staggers, N. (2018). Health Informatics: An Interprofessional Approach, 2nd Ed. St. Louis: Elsevier.

theinformaticsnurse.com. (2018, July). Skills Needed by an Informatics Nurse. Retrieved from TheInformativsNurse.com: http://theinformaticsnurse.com/2012/03/17/skills-n…

University of Illinois Chicago. (2018). 5 skills needed to succeed in health informatics . Retrieved from Univerity of Illinois Chicago Health Informatics retrieved on October 9th, : https://healthinformatics.uic.edu/resources/articl…

respond to classmate #2 in 460 words-

“eHealth involves the use of electronic communication and information technology to improve the access, efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of clinical and business processes utilized by health care organizations, health care professionals, and patients” (Barakat, Woolrych, Sixsmith, Kearns, & Kort, 2013, para 7). eHealth includes technologies such as personal health record, electronic health record, telehealth, and patient monitoring (Barakat et al., 2013). Institute of Medicine (IOM) states that, “We are at a unique time in health care. Technology – which has the potential to improve quality and safety of care as well as reduce costs – is rapidly evolving, changing the way we deliver health care. At the same time, health care reform is reshaping the healthcare landscape” (Fenton, Gongora-Ferraez, & Joost, 2012, para 5).

Romans 12:2 tells us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” With the implementation of health information technology and eHealth the objective is improved health care access and overall patient care. I believe God would say if this is the care then eHealth is acceptable in his eyes. This is because this is what is good for His people, to improve their health and life. 3 John 1:2 states, “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” This Bible verse goes along with superior health that can be provided with health information technology, such as eHealth.

To ensure health care personnel are up to par with eHealth, the organization must train and educate their staff on the up-to-date tools and approaches utilized in the health care facility. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovation Theory suggest that persons go through five phases to implement new technology, these include, knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation. Knowledge, as far as minimum proficiencies need to be in place before eHealth can be implemented.

Skills need for health information technology were labelled as basic, intermediate, or advanced. Basic skill level included comprehending medical technology, as well as simple computer abilities and interpersonal communication competencies. Intermediate skills consist of an array of skills, from understanding electronic health record “meaningful use” to awareness of guidelines concerning confidentiality and security. Project proficiency supervision is also included in intermediate skills. Advanced skills embrace ordinary management and calculated planning abilities. These skills also include the capacity to utilize data analytics and interactive skills to be able to communicate with senior supervisors (Fenton et al., 2012).

Nelson & Staggers (2018) suggest that there any many global encounters that face the eHealth practice. “A key problem in achieving global interoperability in eHealth is the lack of sematic (the meaning of terms) interoperability” (Nelson & Staggers, 2018, p. 590). Chief obstacles consist of vocabulary that defining and recording healthcare; some of these include fees and availability. Other hurdles consist of breaks in exhaustiveness and absence of graininess (Nelson & Staggers, 2018).

Nelson & Staggers (2018) suggest that international endeavors are in progress to resolve these obstacles or challenges. “…such as the development of international standard to underpin clinical terminologies, the development of clinical data models like HL7 Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) documents, openEHR Archetypes, and integration of standard data models with terminologies such as SNOMED CT” (Nelson & Staggers, 2018, p. 590).

In order for eHealth to successful work the health care personnel need to have a specific skill set. The characteristics that are included in this skillset have been thoroughly discussed above. There are obstacles that occur with informatics globally. However, global attempts have been put into place to assist with these.

References

Barakat, A., Woolrych, R. D., Sixsmith, A., Kearns, W. D., & Kort, H.S. (2013). “eHealth

technology competencies for health professionals working in home care to support older

adults to age in place: Outcomes of a two-day collaborative workshop. Med 2.0, 2(2). e10. Fenton, S. H., Gongora-Ferraez, M. J., & Joost. E. (2012). Health Information Technology

Knowledge and Skills Needed by HIT Employers. Appl Clin Inform 3(4): 448–461.

doi: 10.4338/ACI-2012-09-RA-0035

Nelson, R., & Staggers, N. (2018). Health informatics: An interprofessional approach (2nd ed.).

St. Louis: MO. Elsevier