A review of analytics and clinical informatics in health care.
Federal investment in health information technology has incentivized the adoption of electronic health record systems by physicians and health care organizations; the result has been a massive rise in the collection of patient data in electronic form (i.e. "Big Data"). Health care systems have leveraged Big Data for quality and performance improvements using analytics-the systematic use of data combined with quantitative as well as qualitative analysis to make decisions. Analytics have been utilized in various aspects of health care including predictive risk assessment, clinical decision support, home health monitoring, finance, and resource allocation. Visual analytics is one example of an analytics technique with an array of health care and research applications that are well described in the literature. The proliferation of Big Data and analytics in health care has spawned a growing demand for clinical informatics professionals who can bridge the gap between the medical and information sciences.
Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 34th Street and Civic Center Blvd., Suite 9329, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-4399, USA, simpaoa@email.chop.edu.
Allan F
AF
Simpao
Luis M
LM
Ahumada
Jorge A
JA
Gálvez
Mohamed A
MA
Rehman
D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014584:User-Computer Interface