STAT6001-Public Health Informatics

PUBLIC HEALTH INFOMATICS 1 PUBLIC HEALTH INFOMATICS Student Institution Course Course Code Instructor Date PUBLIC HEALTH INFOMATICS 2 TWIT TER REEVIEW ON HEALTH INFORMATICS Health informatics has been considered as a highly interdisciplinary arena which in several cases were well defined as the progressing scientific castigation obtained to be dealing with the collection, communication, retrieval, storage, and the optimal utilization of different health -related information, data, and knowledge (Sahay, Sundararaman and Braa, 2017) . The area typica lly uses the technologies and data methods to solve the problems, decision -making as they guaranteed the highest quality healthcare services in different necessities and all areas of the applied biomedical sciences. In this report, I have managed to summar ize what I have learned from various feeds; I managed to follow three different Twitter accounts on the public -health related and eventually put a critique on how Twitter can then be used in public health and how it can be able to shape people's views on t he overall public health informatics in general. For five weeks, I followed three different Twitter feeds and majorly focused on the feeds related to the discussion question in the module. The three accounts which I look at are as follows,  HEALTHY POLICIES (@healthypolicies)  HEALTH INFORMATICS (@UICInformatics)  PAHO/WHO (@pahowho) Learning on health informatics from Twitter In the health sector, health information is considered to be a very confidential aspect of information. Therefore, for one to collect a nd manage data that are related to health, the input of the information and their accuracy upon the individual patient information should be taken into account, as a result of the confidentiality of the information, its therefore very crucial for one to wo rk with the vendors within the healthcare facilities and the third -party PUBLIC HEALTH INFOMATICS 3 access of the information should be appropriately managed. Over time, it is clear that different healthcare organizations have managed to invest mainly in information technology, maki ng it very easy for both the learners and workers to get specific information that is important for the studies without going to the facility in person (Kokol, Saranto and Vošner, 2018) . According to health informatics learning, social determinant of healt h and deep learning are the hottest trend within the health sector. The data relating to the health information can now be analysed for the development and personalization of senior care. Therefore, health informatics prepares several individuals to play e ssential roles in the evolution that takes place within healthcare. It will eventually help in shaping the patient -centric healthcare system in the future. There are many ways in which health informatics helps cut the patients' waiting time within the heal thcare facility. It can be noted that the health informatics is not only considered to be a screwdriver, but it is a complete toolbox that provides different strategies that utilize the tools for the purpose of fixing the problem which arise within the hea lthcare system. Different healthcare professionals were working tirelessly to ensure that they create a bidirectional information. Individuals sometimes may be using different health related applications, but the question which then arise from such is how effective they really are to the user. It therefore, the responsibility of the healthcare professionals to ensure that there are no missing patient data. Have now learned that the data informatics of the patients can improve the overall clinical outcome. S till, it is the stakeholders' role within the healthcare system to create such a flow of information (Hollis, Soualmia and Séroussi, 2019) . UIC is the leader in education for health information and health information professionals. Healthcare is on the ver ge of a new information wave. PUBLIC HEALTH INFOMATICS 4 Critiques Twitter accounts for public health. During the five weeks following the Twitter accounts @pahowho, it indicates that the WHO is seen to be working with different countries all over the world to improve as well as protect people's health tweeted and retweeted on the non -communicable disease prevention, primary health care, vector control, vaccination, TB control and TB project, food safety, antenatal health, sexual information, road safety, health for all, pregnancy a nd childbirth, suicide prevention, teen pregnancy, depression, cervical cancer, malaria, breast cancer, mental health, rehabilitation, no tobacco, cardiovascular diseases, air pollution control, malnutrition, and the non -communicable disease (Orabi et al, 2018) . I like the tweet that uses an attractive and descriptive image, making people engage and learn the medical concept they are putting in the public domain. At the same time, it is so remarkable that they were able to keep the tweet short and sweet, wh ich is easy for other people to understand. There is no other tweet apart from those related to the health and wellbeing of the general public. The tweeter handle @UICInformatics is the college of applied health science the UIC, a nationally recognized pla tform as one of the multi -disciplinary community of health science. It allows the students to tweet and retweet on health care topics, cloud health, information blocking, business intelligence, telehealth, and the accurate detection of infections. After go ing through it, I have found some of the highlighted topics of discussion, like third -party access to health information and ways to keep health information safe. It provides a platform for understanding the different concepts of health information and all ows students at the same time to provide their views on a particular health topic (Cocos, Fiks and Masino , 2017) . PUBLIC HEALTH INFOMATICS 5 Finally, for five weeks, I managed to go through the @healthypolicies. It is one of the blogs that is committed to advancing different health policies to ensure the protection and access to various resources that are essential for the health of the general public. The blog, therefore, put more focus on specific issues like the effects of the public health policies on the health inequalities in the high -income nations, ways on which the government can use to reduce such disparities, clean water, and the drainage problems in different regions, investment in the health care, illness, animal welfare standards, poverty, and homelessness (Mahata et al , 2018) . The use of the feeds for learning In Australia, to be specific, the ICT was widely applied for public health projects to transform healthcare utilization, the patient's interactions with different health care providers, and the evolution of varyin g healthcare financial models. Like any other industrial sector, healthcare is trying every means to minimize the overall cost of services to the public as they aim to raise their productivity level (Tienhaara, 2018) . The pressure is now on the healthcare professionals to find the most effective combinations of the current technology to ensure they can realize overall improvement in the sector. For the healthcare professionals to be able to combat illnesses and diseases, they must now be more innovative in the ways they provide treatments for their patients while at the same time able to escalate different medical sites for other areas of treatments like the hospital should be then involved in the patience for mobile setting. Therefore, competencies are requ ired for health informatics in the areas such as information science, health system, organizational and behavioural management, management science, and project management within the healthcare setting (Raszewski, Dwyer and Griffin, 2019) . PUBLIC HEALTH INFOMATICS 6 In conclusion, u sing social media to inform the public on the topic of health informatics was started in 2008 when the researchers from Google applied specific critical words so that they can track the location of the seasonal outbreak of the flu. Until 2010 when Google b egins to work with the CDC to develop a specific tool that will allow them to predict the outbreak of flu in different places in the future. Apart from tracking the disease outbreak, social media simultaneously enhances the patient's engagement with variou s healthcare professionals. They were able to communicate in real -time via the platforms like Twitter (Srivastava et al,2017) . This eventually increases the medical experience of the patients, thus enhancing to a greater extend. Healthcare professionals we re able to answer most of their clients' common questions through social media platforms. At the same time, social media is used by different professionals to respond and react to several health -related issues within the minimum time possible. Some of the healthcare facilities, as well as prestigious clinics, commonly leverage the social media platforms as a reliable source of information to the general public hence discouraging them from getting the information concerning health from the unreliable online sources of information which in several cases are just filled with rumours on a specific h ealth topic (Shaanika and Iyamu, 2019) . Medical professionals host even online discussion groups to discuss exercise, health, and nutrition through social platforms. The Twitter account chosen for this assessment is similar to such healthcare platforms t hat share posts related to recent health issues, new researches, and findings or outbreaks of any disease (Rahimi et al, 2018) . It also serves to educate the account followers to know detailed information about specific conditions and prevent them. PUBLIC HEALTH INFOMATICS 7 Howeve r, directly contacting the patients is not possible at the moment. Hence, healthcare itself is going towards a social approach with multiple host sites designed for patient engagement and other medical students. Social media allows medical professionals to connect and share information that helps them discuss the best practices and also benefit from the knowledge shared by other medical professionals ( Health informatics , 2019). However, social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, etc., are not specialize d for healthcare information and might contain tons of fake news and information. The information posted on the social platforms is posted along with the link of the authentic website that has published the report to bypass such complications. Interested p eople can learn the gist of the topic from Twitter or Facebook posts and can visit the linked website for further details on the subject. Some of the most well -known websites used by medical professionals and students for sharing information are Doctor’s hangout, BioMed Experts , and referral MD. EVOLUTION AND UPTAKE OF TELEHEALTH IN AUSTRALIA Telehealth can be considered an umbrella term for telecommunication and electronic - based expansion for healthcare services, both non -clinical and clinical, and include both the electronic health record and telemedicine. Therefore, a re -evaluation of the healthcare setting is needed in Australia for proper healthcare service delivery to its growing population. They include the characterization of the new healthcar e systems, which focuses on improving the general population's overall health outcome through the use of mobile -based Telehealth. It can only be accelerated through a mixture of innovative telehealth technologies. These appropriate reimbursement policies a re based on the health outcomes instead of the usage volume and the evidence -based medicine (Chaet et al, 2017). PUBLIC HEALTH INFOMATICS 8 Mobile phones are considered the de facto mode of communication as it used by almost 80% of people globally as mHealth is growing gradually for the last ten years. Since mobile phones have become more potent for Australians, both mHealth and Telehealth are increasing. People nowadays use mobile phones to communicate with their families, but it is majorly used for health -related activities, includ ing scheduling healthcare appointments and online weight loss programs (El -Miedany, 2017). Patients now take mobile communications for granted and have embraced mHealth. Clinicians must also embrace this culture to stay relevant. The Australian Government has supported the HER initiatives and video - teleconferencing, text messaging, and emails between the patients and doctors. The concept falls well due to the full scope of Telehealth, which includes sharing information between the health care providers, rem ote monitoring like blood glucose, development of high -quality data repositories, and disease registries (Hazenberg et al, 2020, Becevic et al, 2020). The use of informatics for clinical decision support and public health, incorporation of mHealth, virtual services, and social media has improved the service delivery among Australians from the medical professionals within the minimum time possible. Both mHealth and Telehealth can benefit the communities everywhere, like the under - resourced communities like t he Indigenous Australian communities who live in the remote part of the country. The ability to collect the whole patient's stories in such regions will enhance the onsite care and reduce the chronic conditions and cost -effectiveness. Australian Government has tried to ensure the indigenous communities are included in the telehealth initiatives with the National Broadband Network coverage. The use of social media has provided the healthcare sector with several benefits. However, there are some barriers and challenges that the healthcare professionals still experience to ensure they provide high - quality services to the entire population (Bradford, Caffery and Smith, 2016). PUBLIC HEALTH INFOMATICS 9 In Australia, about 40 % of healthcare professionals consider better information sharin g is a great way to improve the population health in every part of the country (Cottrell et al, 2018). The collaboration between the private and public sector, the funding from models providing healthcare, and the high -quality infrastructure are essential to take up telemedicine in Australia. Following the technology entrepreneurs, public sector officials, and healthcare workers, when the criteria are fulfilled, they can act as the precursor for success in implementing and adapting both the telehealth and t elemedicine models in Australia. ICT Issues The major ICT issue which affects telemedicine in Australia is the lack of enough IT infrastructure, which will allow for the direct interaction between doctors and patients. The information on how to use differe nt virtual methods and telemedicine is unknown to many Australians as only about 15% of Australian citizens see it as an effective method for healthcare. Implementing better IT infrastructure and making the Australian citizens aware of Telehealth will allo w them to reap its benefits in the future (Bursell et al, 2016). Management Issues The public and private sectors need to collaborate to implement and adopting telemedicine properly in Australian households and society. Public sectors are good at providing medical care to patients but lack the people's strength and innovation to offer outstanding services. The private sector can be fulfilled, which is good at recruiting people for the job and implementing innovative measures to address the issue. If the Aus tralian Government can manage the collaborating of these two sectors, telemedicine can be easily implemented in the nation. Another equally important management issue is the Government's absence of funding for promoting and improving the telemedicine syste m (Maeder et al, PUBLIC HEALTH INFOMATICS 10 2015). As most physicians, doctors, and healthcare workers believe the use of social media as beneficial for a better public health scenario, the Government should allow more budge to the cause and provide health clinics with resources so that they can implement telemedicine and take care of the patients through video conferencing and other similar online methods. Critical barriers to implementing Telehealth fully in Australia? The key barriers identified through the literature and learning sources are:  Outdated reimbursement.  Inadequate technology and infrastructure.  Payment methods and funding.  Restrictive policies.  Inclination towards healthcare's traditional approach. These five were identified as the key barriers that are preventing the Australian population from better healthcare monitoring. Addressing the Barriers The healthcare workers and medical professionals agree that social media and telemedicine methods are the best way to address these barriers by raising awareness and essentia l information about them. However, the Government of Australia has not addressed these barriers properly as most people lack knowledge about such methods and still prefer the traditional approach for healthcare service. Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are being used presently due to users' high activity in them. Various clinics post their research and general health awareness on their dedicated social pages to spread information to the general public (Jang -Jaccard et al, 2016). PUBLIC HEALTH INFOMATICS 11 Recommenda tions Based on the identified barriers, the following recommendations and suggestions might help adopt telemedicine in Australia. We are raising awareness of people through social media platforms and upgrading technological infrastructure to provide virtua l methods that allow patient -doctor interaction. Funding policies that would provide the financial resources to change the healthcare system's overall structure in Australia. Using social media pages to counter misinformation about health issues and make t he people interested in this new medical service approach (Sutherland et al, 2016). PUBLIC HEALTH INFOMATICS 12 References Becevic, M., Sheets, L. R., Wallach, E., McEowen, A., Bass, A., Mutrux, E. R., & Edison, K. E. (2020). telehealth and telemedicine in missouri. 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