Healthcare Information Technology and Standards - Essay Example

'Healthcare Information Technology and Standards' is a worthy example of a paper on the health system. 
What are the five main core development areas for Health IT?

The health information technology has five main core development areas which are clinical informatics which deals with the use of healthcare information by the clinicians, clinical research informatics which applies the research in health informatics to clinical settings. The third is public health informatics dealing with how health informatics is applied in the public health field. There is consumer health informatics which addresses the issue of informatics from a different point of views of the consumers. Lastly is translational bioinformatics which is a combination of different data such as biomedical and genomic data in order to be able to predictive, prevent and generally participate in health (Gartee, 2010).

What do we mean by data standards? Give five examples of current data standards that are being used. What is its purpose?

Data standards are the agreements of the common data that have documented in order to provide meaning, enable action to be taken on them as well as test their validity. Examples of data standards include LOINC for laboratory and clinical observations, NLM-UMLS for biomedicine and health care drugs, ISO which is for medical products and pharmaceutical doses, DICOM for digital imaging as well as NUBC for hospital billing form among many other (Ciampa & Revels, 2012).

What is needed to achieve interoperability between all providers? What types of network standards are necessary for addition to data standards?

Before interoperability is fully successful, it is important to define the data to be exchanged as well as ensure that the data in each organization is secure. Testing of the systems at different levels of interoperability is also necessary to ensure successful implementation. The network specification necessary in addition to data standards includes IS 01-IS 12 which covers public health, immunization, medication, consultations, biosurveillance, and emergency response among others. There is also IS 77 for maternal and child health, IS 92 for screening newborns as well as IS 158 for clinical research just to mention a few (Gartee, 2010). 

What has been the role of Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT in data standards and interoperability? What is the Nationwide Health Information Network?

The role of the Office of the National Coordination for Health IT is to advance any connectivity and interoperability of health information technology. It also determines the best interoperability and data standards available to be implemented. The ONC supports improvements made in health care to improve the quality of as well as promote healthcare among the community and individuals. The National Health Information Network is standards and policies which enable smooth security exchange of health information on the internet (Ciampa & Revels, 2012).

How do the standards in the EHR systems and interoperability networks impact the working environment of healthcare professionals?

Set standards in both EHR, as well as interoperability, provide direction and guidance to the healthcare workers using them so as to avoid making mistakes about patient information. They also ensure the improvement of quality of the patient data and information which is updated and accurate. The fact that both systems emphasize security enables the security of patients’ information as well as improving the costs associated with the lack of quality information and user manual systems (Hebda & Czar, 2012).

What are the ways health organizations will need to protect health data from threats (man-made and natural disasters) and technological vulnerabilities?

Cyber threats in health information technology need to be handled the same way other cyber threats are handled through the constant change of the security network and software used to secure the information. This will make it hard to track the information without getting caught. Cloud storage of the data will protect it against man-made and natural disasters as the information will be stored away from the servers in the health care organization where it cannot easily be retrieved without access (Vest & Gamm, 2010).