title: Medical informatics. The future is here.
abstract: Informatics is an indispensable discipline for leaders and managers--of patients, facilities, and organizations--because the most important assets of those organizations are their information processing technologies, and the key skills are those that help them to manage information. Managers and executives will increasingly need to anticipate trends in information management technologies that could affect their business. In health care, computer-based patient records, integration engines, online analytical processing systems, telemedicine, expert systems, and the Internet have become vital to having the competitive advantage. Those who do not understand the promise and limitations of these technologies and the need for strong leadership to establish standards for data and transaction systems will not lead their organizations well.
authors.affiliation: Informatics Institute, Falls Church, VA, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ruffin
mesh_terms: D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000639:trends*; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D008486:Physician Executives; D017216:Telemedicine; D014481:United States