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Elements of an efficient Healthcare computer system implementation Healthcare computer system implementation lies at the heart of a healthcare delivery information system. The processing and dissemination of information in extremely quick time is indispensable to healthcare, given the number of processes that go into the healthcare information system, and the improvement in care this can bring about. A healthcare computer system, which can be described as the ecosystem of a healthcare delivery information system, is thus a critical component, because this healthcare computer system implementation is what decides between the efficiency of a healthcare information system and lack of it. A healthcare computer system implementation should cover all the core areas that are part of a healthcare delivery information system, such as the patient, the caregiver, the medical records concerning the patient, the healthcare organization, and other aspects of administration, such as admission, billing and so on. What goes into an efficient healthcare computer system implementation? An efficient healthcare computer system implementation consists of taking into account all the major elements of a healthcare delivery information system. It should have the ability to synchronize, coordinate and integrate vital data from across departments and systems. An efficient healthcare computer system implementation should also take into account the technologies that go into them. Technologies keep changing rapidly. New ones come into being and render the old ones obsolete in no time. A healthcare computer system implementation has to take into account the nature of these changes, and should implement them in quick time. Technologies and technological tools that are doing the rounds today include the cloud, mobile technologies and the social media. So, a healthcare computer system implementation has to integrate these. In the particular context of the American healthcare system, healthca

Overview: New changes modifying the HIPAA Privacy and Security Regulations are going into place to meet the privacy and security mandates within the HITECH Act in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The changes include establishing new rights for individuals as well as changes to the limitations on uses and disclosures. New requirements for patient access to records and requirements to notify individuals in the event of a breach are only two of the many areas affected in the new law, including new requirements for restriction and accounting of disclosures and increased enforcement activity. Covered entities that use electronic health records (EHRs) will need to meet new access and disclosure rules and all kinds of business associates and their subcontractors will need to establish compliance programs. And if you are required to have a HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices, you will need to update that to show all the new rights that patients will have, such as electronic copies, new rights to restrict disclosures, and much more. Business associates are now directly covered by the HIPAA privacy and security regulations and are liable for fines and penalties if they do not comply. If a business associate supplies services that interact with the new changes to the rules, the BA will need to be aware of the new requirements. We will explain what a Business Associate needs to do differently under the new regulations. Electronic records have new demands placed on them, in both providing access and in accounting for all disclosures of health information - the electronic age in health care brings new obligations to serve individuals as well as manage health information for healthcare professionals. We will discuss how disclosures must be tracked in an EHR and review the various ways patient records can be supplied electronically. The new regulations will be reviewed and their effects on usual practices will be discussed, as will what policies need to be chang

If there is a difference in numbers on documents and accounts, you need to review and check for discrepancies in the revenue cycle management, especially the accounts receivable. Avoid the following four major pitfalls and generate revenue consistently.

Overview: As defined by the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a Business Associate can be any organization or person working in association with or providing services to a Covered Entity who handles or discloses Protected Health Information (PHI) or Personal Health Records (PHR). With certain exceptions, a person or entity that creates, receives, maintains, or transmits PHI for a function or activity regulated by the HIPAA Privacy Rule for a Covered Entity is a Business Associate. The HITECH Act, a recent update made to overall HIPAA regulations require Business Associates to comply with HIPAA mandates regarding the handling and use of health information. As a Business Associate you must comply with a wide-range of regulatory obligations, including certain privacy obligations, security standards, and breach notification requirements. If your business needs to understand what it means to be a Business Associate and know what required safeguards, policies and procedures must be in place or make sure your current compliance program is adequate and can withstand government scrutiny, please join us for this informative and interactive session. Why should you Attend: There is a lot of confusion about the role and requirements of being a Business Associate. Organizations must be prepared prior to entering into these contracts for services as a vendor and subcontractor. Attendees will leave the course clearly understanding of all the requirements that must be in place for the Business Associate - Covered Entity arrangement. After completing this course, a Business Associate will have a clear understanding as to what needs to be place when it comes to all of the HIPAA regulations. Areas Covered in the Session: Why was HIPAA created? Who Must Comply with HIPAA Requirements? What are the HIPAA Security and Privacy Rules? What are the Consequences of being a Business Associate What is a HIPAA Compliance Program? What is a HIPAA Risk Mana

Overview: Hospital chargemasters are complex and represent a key component for the revenue cycle of hospitals. Chargemasters are intertwined with coding for services, billing for services, charging for services and even involve the cost reporting process. A myriad of decisions must be made concerning how the chargemaster is organized, impacts on coding and billing, charge structuring, cost accounting, and other processes within the revenue cycle. Whenever decisions are made, policies and procedures should be developed, approved and implemented. A proper system of billing and chargemaster policies and procedures can help to maintain an appropriate compliance stance in a world where ambiguous guidance is often the norm. The development of charges and charge structuring within the chargemaster is a major issue often referred to as transparent pricing. While even the Medicare program maintains that hospitals should charge for everything, the way in which charges are set and amalgamated at the claim level can vary significantly between hospitals. A key issue for the chargemaster is differentiating separately charging from separately reporting. The way in which hospitals make decisions about the bundling of charges at the line-item level within the chargemaster leads to many decisions, all of which need justification through proper policies and procedures. Due consideration must be given to departmental concerns about revenue generation, cost reporting implications, coding implications and any associate challenges with billing and claims filing. Why should you Attend: See Typical Questions - Here are some reworded marketing questions: Why are the chargemaster and hospital billing targets of compliance audits? How should we prioritize statutory and contractual compliance for the chargemaster and billing process? Will chargemaster and associated billing policies and procedures give us protection relative to compliance? How should we develop a system of chargemaster po

Overview: Discussions, presentation, and webinars regarding HIPAA regulations are usually addressed from the perspective of what the regulations entail, the necessity of compliance with the regulations, and the consequences of willful neglect or non-compliance. This presentation addresses HIPAA regulations from a different perspective - from a personal perspective - from the perspective of the person in charge of moving an organization or facility toward full compliance with HIPAA. The by-product of this presentation will be both an understanding of, and a detailed job description for, a position mandated in the regulations - the HIPAA Security/Privacy Officer. Why should you attend: The HIPAA regulations are numerous, complicated, often vague, and affect every person working in a healthcare facility. Compliance with HIPAA will require a unique individual to lead the charge - an individual whose education, background, experience, and demonstrated skill sets offer the opportunity for that person to succeed in achieving the goals of that position. This is a new position to most healthcare facilities. So understanding who this person should be, what is required of the person with this job title, and with whom this person will interface is vital to every healthcare organization with the goal of achieving full compliance with HIPAA. Areas Covered in the Session: Position goals Position requirements (education, experience, skill sets, etc.) Position responsibilities Stay abreast of regulations Initiate compliance with HIPAA (according to regulations) Ensure continuous progress toward full compliance Develop appropriate security/privacy policies & procedures Oversee and deliver appropriate training programs to all employees Track compliance with HIPAA regulations at the facility & individual levels Track access to PHI Investigate and resolve HIPAA violations Apply sanctions to HIPAA violators Manage any information security personnel Prepare a department

The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was legislated in 1996 with the primary aim of ensuring that employees who are in the process of changing or leaving their jobs do not lose their health insurance benefits. Additionally, HIPAA sought to bring down health care fraud and abuse by mandating pan-industry standards for the protection of health care information and automated billing and other related processes, and for ensuring the security of Protected Health Information (PHI). What is a HIPAA Security Audit? A HIPAA Security Audit is a program under the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Audit Program of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR). A HIPAA Security Audit is carried out to make sure that the policies, processes and controls on the part of Covered Entities comply with the provisions of the HITECH Act of 2009. Adherence to the requirements laid out by HITECH is mandatory. Given the high degree of continued use of new technologies that go into and will continue to go into electronic records of patients and the criticality of the data contained in them; the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recognizes that there could be chances of data breach of Protected Health Information. It is to prevent the occurrence of these breaches that a HIPAA Security Audit is mandated by the HITECH Act. Reporting of data breaches is mandatory The foremost highlight of the HITECH Act is the requirement that Entities covered by HIPAA report data breaches that affect 500 or more employees to the HHS. The OCR lays out an Audit Protocol, with whose policies, protocols and processes a facility has to comply if it is said to be compliant with the HIPAA Security Audit. Why is it necessary to carry out a HIPAA/HITECH Security Audit? Compliance with HIPAA Security Audit is necessary to demonstrate that a practice or business is well protected. The most important reason for which such entities need to be HIPAA/HITECH Security

Incidental disclosures form the crux of HIPAA compliance and patient care. HIPAA has elaborate rules on how to maintain these and in what situations. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a landmark set of federal regulations, is aimed at protecting patient privacy regulations. Yet, it is understood that some information has to necessarily be shared. HIPAA compliance and patient care is centered on the inevitable disclosures that have to be made, or what are called incidental disclosures. Initially, there was some ambiguity about incidental disclosures, resulting in some kind of haziness about HIPAA compliance and patient care. With these cleared, much of HIPAA compliance and patient care hinges on this principle. Incidental disclosures determine patient care compliance with HIPAA Incidental disclosures are what are termed secondary use, i.e., it is the unavoidable or inevitable disclosure of Protected Health Information. It is understood that incidental disclosures, being a byproduct of the course or nature of the treatment; are inescapable, given the condition and situation of the patient. Guiding factors for HIPAA compliance with patient care The aim of HIPAA's Privacy Rule is to ensure that healthcare providers have to use professional judgment guided by ethical guidelines at the time of making incidental disclosures. The following bases were propounded for adherence with HIPAA compliance and patient care: Whenever there is an unavoidable breach in confidentiality, the breach should be proportionate to the potential benefit the patient's gets from care When a patient is not present in the healthcare setting or is incapacitated, information about the patient can be shared with the family, friends or whoever else is involved in the patient's care. This protocol need not be documented. In relation to the above, a requirement of HIPAA compliance for patient care is that when the patient has a condition that is not related to the present tr

HIPAA Enforcement trends : Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a legislation of the American Congress. HIPAA enforcement consists of taking steps to confirm that rules set out in HIPAA are being complied with by the requisite entities. Primarily passed with the intention of ensuring that employees do not lose their health insurance benefits when they change or leave their current jobs; this 1996 law also has the protection and security of Protected Health Information (PHI) as one of its chief aims. The Office of Civil Rights (OCR), which enforces actions relating to HIPAA, imposes harsh penalties on healthcare organizations and Business Associates and Covered Entities that are proven to be in noncompliance of HIPAA requirements. What are HIPAA enforcement actions? The actions that the OCR takes to ensure implementation of HIPAA provisions constitute the essence of HIPAA enforcement actions. There are a good number of areas which the OCR can cite as constituting cases of HIPAA violations or noncompliance. A look at recent HIPAA enforcement actions point to a trend. These trends serve as an indicator of what to expect from HIPAA enforcement actions, which will help entities get some idea of what they should implement and what they should not and thus prevent being cited by the OCR. Security risk assessments are the foremost element of HIPAA enforcement actions: A look at recent trends suggests that HIPAA enforcement actions mainly target security risk assessments. This leads to harsh penalties, as happened in the case of New York-Presbyterian Hospital (NYP). The hefty $ 4.8 million penalty slapped in 2014 on this hospital was for data breach caused by insufficient security risk assessment. While this is the biggest sum fined; the OCR issued at least three other hospitals for putting in place inadequate security risk assessments in 2014. Risk management comes a close second: If inadequate security risk assessments come first in te

Overview: The presentation takes the participant through the steps needed to ensure a successful health care computer system implementation. Once presented the participant will see the logic of the tools and processes and be able to apply them to their system implementation. The tools and processes presented in this material have been developed by implementing health care systems for over 40 years and seeing what has worked and WHY it has worked. These tools and processes have been equally and successfully applied to the implementation of large, complex systems and smaller, simpler systems for large, multidepartment organizations and for small health care organizations. The process focuses on establishing the project's implementation expectations, identifying meaningful metrics for success, establishing project plans, assigning individual accountabilities and responsibilities, establishing and executing project tasks, monitoring project progress and validating project success. To establish viable project expectations, the presentation addresses the need for bringing all of the stakeholders (organization owners, providers and management, operations staff, IT staff and the vendor) into establishing common and realizable expectations. These are reviewed in context of the organization's current environment and its short and long term goals and are considered as a critical part of the implementation completion process. In the case of turning around an already troubled or failed system implementation, the process emphasizes the tasks of reassessing the project stakeholder expectations - why they decided the system would help the organization and what they expected to get from the system. Next the process shows the participant how to convert these expectations to realistic and measurable project success metrics. The process focuses on learning how to separate "so what" metrics from meaningful and measurable metrics. In addition, the process provides direction regardin

Overview: Many medical entities are increasingly struggling to manage revenue effectively. Self pay is on the rise due to high deductibles. Bad debt is increasing. What is your plan to manage these areas? Staff trained in denial management? Variances? Are they handling these areas in a timely manner? Payers have time limits in which dollars can be salvaged. Missing those strategic times mean dollars lost. Don't leave money on the table. We will discuss multiple avenues in which strong training and timely action can equal $$$. Why should you Attend: Don't lose hard earned revenue. Learn tips to strategic follow up, when and how to manage the appeal process. Is the claim appealable? Partial payments and why? Today's industry of high dollar deductibles create the necessity to expend additional efforts on self-pay accounts. There is a significant difference in collecting small co-pays and managing large balances. Bad debt creep? What is your plan for managing these areas? Areas Covered in the Session: Hire the right staff - Then engage in ongoing education Variances and denial management Billing compliance Coding for specificity, co-existing conditions and correct modifiers Supporting medical necessity CCI edits and unbundling Productivity Claims follow up Payer processing edits Additional development requests Handling problem claims and appeals Who Will Benefit: Coders Billers Revenue cycle Physicians, mid-level providers Nurses Claims follow-up Managers Speaker Profile Dorothy D. Steed is an Independent Healthcare Consultant and Educator in Atlanta. She was a Medicare specialist for a large hospital system and a physician coding audit supervisor for another hospital system, with 38 years of experience in healthcare. Additionally, she is an instructor at a state technical college in Atlanta, provides auditing & training in both facility and physician services, and has been a speaker at several healthcare conferences. Ms. Steed has written articles for

Hospital Management : The growth and development of hospitals has led to an altogether specialized discipline -hospital management. Hospital management is about coordinating the various functions of a hospital and ensuring optimal healthcare to patients and other stakeholders. Hospital Management has come a long way from being a supplementary duty that senior doctors handled with ease, to being a full-fledged specialization in itself. Hospital management is an altogether fully developed specialist profession whose managers are well qualified. Many institutions today offer courses on hospital management. The relationship of hospital management to the area of management rather than to the medical field can be understood from the fact that many hospital managers are from a purely management background, and have little knowledge of medical science. Many hospital management institutions offer an MBA. They also offer courses on specialized subunits of hospital management, such as hospital financial management, healthcare system management, hospital human resources management, etc. This is because hospitals have evolved over time. They are now ultra-specialist healthcare providers that use the latest technologies. A hospital could use anything from billing software to highly sophisticated technology used in its medical devices. A hospital management specialist needs to be not only aware of these uses; she also needs to be/have all these: A good administrator who handles staff; A deep knowledge of the information systems; A good grip on all the systems that need to be coordinated thoroughly if the hospital needs to function smoothly without any hassles; Dealing with facilities for patients. Hospital Management can thus be understood as being the facilitator between a healthcare setting and those who need these services. It is about ensuring that all the administrative elements of a healthcare setting function in unison to ensure provision of accountable healthcare.

Construction Safety Orientation Construction Safety Orientation is part of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)'s safety initiatives for those employed in the construction industry. Construction Safety Orientation is offered to employers and employees in the construction industry by OSHA or its authorized trainers. Construction Safety Orientation is offered as either a 10-hour or 30-hour course to employees by OSHA-authorized trainers. The aim of the Construction Safety Orientation training is provide training to employees and employers in this industry to help them recognize, abate, avoid, and prevent injuries in the workplace. In addition, Construction Safety Orientation also involves providing training to the employees and employers about their rights and duties at the workplace. s Outreach Training Program is voluntary There are two reasons for OSHA recommends Construction Safety Orientation: OSHA's Outreach Training Program is voluntary; OSHA's Outreach Training Program, being basic, does not provide the full training requirements that the employer has to meet under set OSHA standards. Because of this reason, OSHA's Outreach Training Program is not considered a certification. The need for Construction Safety Orientation The sheer size of the American construction industry is the best reason for the need for Construction Safety Orientation: A little over two percent of the entire American population - something like 6.5 million people are engaged in the construction industry at more than a quarter of a million construction sites across the nation. This perhaps gives some perspective of the magnitude of the tendency for injuries and deaths in this industry. In fact, it is known that construction accounts for the highest rate of fatal injuries among all industries in the US. In a construction workplace, workers could be prone to almost any kind of injury or hazard. According to osha.gov, the most common reasons include: Falls (from heights);

What is HIPAA ? Compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a core requirement of the stakeholders involved in health information. HIPAA has prescribed standards with which to protect critical data relating to patients. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are important documents that contain sensitive patient data, and are thus considered Protected Health Information (PHI). Since this data is accessible to a number of players involved in the field of healthcare; it extremely important to set regulatory guidelines aimed at ensuring that patient information remains protected. HIPAA compliance is essentially about staying in compliance with these guidelines. Measures needed to show compliance with HIPAA HIPAA requires a healthcare organization dealing with PHI to implement all of the following measures and comply with them: Physical measures Network measures, and Process security measures The role of HIPAA Privacy Rule and HIPAA Security Rule HIPAA has set out two important rules that pertain to compliance. These are the HIPAA Privacy Rule and the HIPAA Security Rule. While the Privacy Rule relates to how the medical information of a patient is saved, accessed and shared; the Security Rule is about how to implement national security safeguards for protecting electronic PHI, or ePHI. Who all need to be HIPAA compliant? Since the aim of HIPAA compliance is to ensure complete safety of patient data, it has requirements for every stakeholder in the EHR process. These stakeholders comprise: Covered Entities (CE): Anyone involved in the treatment, payment and operations in healthcare Business Associates (BA): Any person who has access to patient information and is involved in supporting treatment, payment or operations. These include third-party administrators and private sector vendors Those with whom BA's work, or those that are called subcontractors Hosting providers. These typically include healthcare software pro

Overview: Essentially, covering in 90 minutes the basics of E everything that applies to your clinical work. We will give you the questions to ask your IT people, because you should not implicitly trust them, because the law will hold you accountable more than them. We will first cover the general principles of electronic compliances as laid forth in HIPAA. We will then discuss how this applies to your desktop/laptop/iPads and smart devices, other electronic equipment such as routers and modems. We also cover the use of email, secure mail and your EHR/EMR. We will discuss the pros and cons of using the cloud for your data storage and EHR/EMR, i.e. knowing what a HIPAA compliant data center looks like. Principles in the use of encryption and passwords and other security principles will also be covered. Why should you Attend: Unless you are 100% sure you've thought through every angle of your patient's electronic PHI and you sleep like a baby never concerned about this then you need to attend. If you have any questions about the details of what electronic compliance looks like and how it's applied in day-to-day clinical and business activities, interactions with vendors, EHR/EMR, your relationship with your ISP and IT providers, use of all electronic devices, then this workshop is for you. It also gives you principles to apply in new situations which are likely to arise frequently. If you wrote the book on this it would be out of date in 24 hours, so what's important is to learn how to think about these things and use your resources to stay ahead of the game. If you are confident you have the basics covered on every item listed below then this seminar is not for you. Areas Covered in the Session: HIPAA electronic compliance Secure use of EHR/EMR Email and secure mail use Encryption and password security principles Interfacing with the public Interfacing with vendors such as ISPs and other telecommunication companies Backups Cloud use How to know your data center

Ensuring Patient Safety in Surgical Environments is Critical for Healthcare Providers A critical component of patient safety relates to surgical environments. Surgical theaters are prone to causing a high degree of harm. This can be from a number of sources. Patient safety in surgical environments can be from any microbe or fungus in any of the accessories used during surgery, such as ECG machine, the echo machine, or other related ones. A host of external factors can impinge upon patient safety in surgical environments Patient safety in surgical environments can also be compromised on account of the use of infected items such as swabs, sponges, knives, forceps, needles, catheters, tubes or any other such accessories or instruments. Patient safety in surgical environments can also get affected by the presence of microscopic allergens and molds in any bedding or clothing item. Even germs transmitted from the caregivers can be a source of lack of patient safety in surgical environments. Another major source where patient safety in surgical environments can suffer is when items are left behind in patients��� bodies by the surgeon. There have been innumerable cases of entire surgical items being left behind in the patient, even in the best hospitals, when surgery is performed by the best surgeons. Get a proper understanding of the underlying causes What do all these point to? These point to the fact that all the factors mentioned above are manmade and are preventable. So, understanding the root of the problem is the key to ensuring patient safety in surgical environments. East and west carry differences Any approach to a solution for ensuring patient safety in surgical environments has to start with the understanding that different healthcare and surgical environments exist in different parts of the world. A surgical environment in Germany for instance is vastly different from that in say, Ghana. So, an individualized approach is what is needed. It is to be note

Medical Informatics is a story of phenomenal growth: Medical informatics is an area that is growing at a fervid pace. Its growth is not likely to get hindered or slow down in the near future, due to the surge in its use in the healthcare and IT industries. Medical Informatics is a relatively recent development in the field of healthcare. It is interwoven into the development and application of IT-based innovations in the healthcare industry. Medical informatics is often synonymously and loosely used with other related words such as clinical informatics, nursing informatics, healthcare informatics and so on. Its associations with related or similar disciplines notwithstanding, one can draw a fairly clear idea of medical informatics. It can be described as the application, adoption, design and development of IT into activities relating to the healthcare industry. What is the objective of medical informatics? Medical informatics seeks to enhance knowledge and innovate in the healthcare field by using IT and its applications. Towards this end, it uses and merges the principles, knowledge, data, application, and the tools needed for applying these in the process of decision-making. Who are involved in the use of medical informatics? Medical informatics is used by almost everyone in the healthcare industry. These include physicians, nurses, billers, coders, many others who provide healthcare, and medical librarians. In addition, there are specialists who are tasked purely with working with medical informatics, such as Data analysts Hospital record managers, and Programmers and analysts in the industry. The rise and rise of medical informatics The birth and growth of medical informatics has been tied to those of the IT industry, the Internet in particular. In a sense, they are twins, having started and grown in almost a conjoined fashion. Its early development started in the 1960s, very nearly contemporaneous with that of the Net. While the medium that brought

Overview: Discussions, presentation, and webinars regarding HIPAA regulations are usually addressed from the perspective of what the regulations entail, the necessity of compliance with the regulations, and the consequences of willful neglect or non-compliance. This presentation addresses HIPAA regulations from a different perspective - from a personal perspective - from the perspective of the person in charge of moving an organization or facility toward full compliance with HIPAA. The by-product of this presentation will be both an understanding of, and a detailed job description for, a position mandated in the regulations - the HIPAA Security/Privacy Officer. Why should you attend: The HIPAA regulations are numerous, complicated, often vague, and affect every person working in a healthcare facility. Compliance with HIPAA will require a unique individual to lead the charge - an individual whose education, background, experience, and demonstrated skill sets offer the opportunity for that person to succeed in achieving the goals of that position. This is a new position to most healthcare facilities. So understanding who this person should be, what is required of the person with this job title, and with whom this person will interface is vital to every healthcare organization with the goal of achieving full compliance with HIPAA. Areas Covered in the Session: Position goals Position requirements (education, experience, skill sets, etc.) Position responsibilities Stay abreast of regulations Initiate compliance with HIPAA (according to regulations) Ensure continuous progress toward full compliance Develop appropriate security/privacy policies & procedures Oversee and deliver appropriate training programs to all employees Track compliance with HIPAA regulations at the facility & individual levels Track access to PHI Investigate and resolve HIPAA violations Apply sanctions to HIPAA violators Manage any information security personnel Prepare a department budget Hold Bu

Medical Informatics : Medical informatics is an area that is growing at a fervid pace. Its growth is not likely to get hindered or slow down in the near future, due to the surge in its use in the healthcare and IT industries. Medical Informatics is a relatively recent development in the field of healthcare. It is interwoven into the development and application of IT-based innovations in the healthcare industry. Medical informatics is often synonymously and loosely used with other related words such as clinical informatics, nursing informatics, healthcare informatics and so on. Its associations with related or similar disciplines notwithstanding, one can draw a fairly clear idea of medical informatics. It can be described as the application, adoption, design and development of IT into activities relating to the healthcare industry. What is the objective of medical informatics? Medical informatics seeks to enhance knowledge and innovate in the healthcare field by using IT and its applications. Towards this end, it uses and merges the principles, knowledge, data, application, and the tools needed for applying these in the process of decision-making. Who are involved in the use of medical informatics? Medical informatics is used by almost everyone in the healthcare industry. These include physicians, nurses, billers, coders, many others who provide healthcare, and medical librarians. In addition, there are specialists who are tasked purely with working with medical informatics, such as Data analysts Hospital record managers, and Programmers and analysts in the industry. The rise and rise of medical informatics: The birth and growth of medical informatics has been tied to those of the IT industry, the Internet in particular. In a sense, they are twins, having started and grown in almost a conjoined fashion. Its early development started in the 1960s, very nearly contemporaneous with that of the Net. While the medium that brought it into existenc