Chapter One
INTRODUCTION TO HEALTH CARE
INFORMATION
Although it may seem self evident, it is worth stating:
health care information is the reason
we need health care information systems. No study of information systems in health
care would be complete without an examination of the data and information they are
designed to support. The focus of this chapter will be on the data and information
that are unique to health care, such as the clinical information created during patients'
health care encounters, the administrative information related to those encounters,
and the external information used to improve the clinical care and administrative
functions associated with those encounters.
We begin the chapter with a brief discussion of some common definitions of
health care information. Then we introduce the framework that will be used for exploring
various types of health care information. The first section of the chapter looks
at data and information created internally by health care organizations ...
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