Computers in the Health Sciences

Abstract

Publisher Summary Economics and technology are key factors in restructuring the health care system aided by a rapidly emerging acceptance and use of computers. The medical information system is the root of information processing in the health sciences. It draws from many sources, both human and machine, and provides the foundation for many uses, such as patient care, finance, education, and research. Some of the functional dimensions of a medical information system include admissions office, ambulatory care department, business office, and medical records departments. Some of its benefits include improved quality of the clinical record , improved audit and quality control, and better use of clinical data. With the diagnosis-related group (DRG)-based approach, patients are classified by their principal diagnosis or by the condition responsible for their admission. The essential steps in diagnosis are acquisition of information from the patient, interpretation of this information, and diagnosis. The computer system can help in both the acquisition and interpretation phases of this process. With regard to interpretation of the data, two popular approaches are statistical systems and logic-based (expert) systems.