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…