ROLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN MEDICAL SCIENCE

Information technology (IT) is the application of computers and telecommunications equipment to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data, often in the context of a business or other enterprise. Today information technology is used in wide range of fields and one of the upcoming fields is of Medical Science, which is known as Health Information Technology (HIT).

Health information technology (HIT) is the application of information processing involving both computer hardware and software that deals with the storage, retrieval, sharing, and use of health care information, data, and knowledge for communication and decision making. HIT, technology represents computers and communications attributes that can be networked to build systems for moving health information. 

LET'S LEARN A LIL BIT OF HISTORY SHALL WE???

1949   -     Gustav Wagner established the first professional organization for health informatics in Germany.

1950s  -    The rise of the computers. Worldwide use of computer technology in medicine began in this era. 

Health informatics also called Health Information Systems is a discipline at the intersection of information science, computer science, and health care. It concerns with the resources, devices, and methods required for optimizing the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information in health and biomedicine.

Health informatics tools include computers, clinical guidelines, formal medical terminologies, and information and communication systems. It is applied to the areas of nursing, clinical care, dentistry, pharmacy, public health, occupational therapy, and (bio)medical research.

The SunDaily Article on Pharmacy Information Management System 

There is no argument over the influence of IT in medicine and education. But there are still many areas which need to be improved before we could utilise IT to its full extent. Last but not the least, however advanced the technology gets, it can never replace the interaction the doctors and students require with the patient and the clinical judgments which make great doctors. So, in the pursuit of modern technologies, we should be careful that the doctor patient relationships do not get overlooked.