Preface
This book is an edition in the Springer Translational Systems Science series and an
attempt to describe continuing evolution of health informatics, especially in the
context of innovation in healthcare. As such, this is the first book that approaches
innovation in health informatics from a perspective of translational systems science.
Based on such a unique perspective, the purpose of this volume is to present a bird’seye view to readers on how changes in health informatics will innovate healthcare
and how innovation in healthcare will affect health informatics.
Health informatics is the intersection of information science, medicine, systems
science, healthcare delivery systems, management, policy analysis, and health per
se. It deals with the resources, devices, and methods required to optimize the
acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information in healthcare. Moreover, health
informatics tools include not only computers but also clinical guidelines, decision
support systems, formal medical terminologies, information and communication
systems, and data storage systems. As such, traditional books on health informatics,
intentionally or unintentionally, have tended to focus on topics such as information
management systems, electronic health records, guideline and protocol systems,
coding and classification, decision support tools, patient monitoring, population
surveillance, bioinformatics, and personalized medicine.
It would not be easy for experts in the field of health informatics to point out that
health informatics, as a discipline, has a contradictory characteristic. That is, health
informatics has been built on existing health systems, while it seeks to innovate itself
to adapt to new health systems. Therefore, there is a potential conflict or dilemma
between the conservative direction of maintaining conventional methods and the
innovative direction of overriding them and adopting new methods. In simple words,
the former is termed tradition, whereas the latter innovation. This book is an attempt
to portray that traditional healthcare is being challenged and changed into new forms
of healthcare as well as that traditionally used health informatics is being
transformed into a new one. In an attempt to do so, this book emphasizes on how
to translate information into innovation from a perspective of translational systems
science by exploring the horizons of health informatics, introducing cutting-edge
v
This book is an edition in the Springer Translational Systems Science series and an
attempt to describe continuing evolution of health informatics, especially in the
context of innovation in healthcare. As such, this is the first book that approaches
innovation in health informatics from a perspective of translational systems science.
Based on such a unique perspective, the purpose of this volume is to present a bird’seye view to readers on how changes in health informatics will innovate healthcare
and how innovation in healthcare will affect health informatics.
Health informatics is the intersection of information science, medicine, systems
science, healthcare delivery systems, management, policy analysis, and health per
se. It deals with the resources, devices, and methods required to optimize the
acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information in healthcare. Moreover, health
informatics tools include not only computers but also clinical guidelines, decision
support systems, formal medical terminologies, information and communication
systems, and data storage systems. As such, traditional books on health informatics,
intentionally or unintentionally, have tended to focus on topics such as information
management systems, electronic health records, guideline and protocol systems,
coding and classification, decision support tools, patient monitoring, population
surveillance, bioinformatics, and personalized medicine.
It would not be easy for experts in the field of health informatics to point out that
health informatics, as a discipline, has a contradictory characteristic. That is, health
informatics has been built on existing health systems, while it seeks to innovate itself
to adapt to new health systems. Therefore, there is a potential conflict or dilemma
between the conservative direction of maintaining conventional methods and the
innovative direction of overriding them and adopting new methods. In simple words,
the former is termed tradition, whereas the latter innovation. This book is an attempt
to portray that traditional healthcare is being challenged and changed into new forms
of healthcare as well as that traditionally used health informatics is being
transformed into a new one. In an attempt to do so, this book emphasizes on how
to translate information into innovation from a perspective of translational systems
science by exploring the horizons of health informatics, introducing cutting-edge
v