McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics

The Benefits of Increased Online Access

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Wednesday, February 10th, 2016

• The health care industry is continually metamorphosing in order to keep up with current trends. If you can catch a ride, watch a movie or order groceries online, it makes sense for you to have access to your health information online too. To satisfy the insatiable desire to instantly have information, which already has the potential to shape the future of the health care, more and more providers are giving their patients the power to access, and even edit, their health records.
  
  

Time To Implement IOM Health IT Recommendations For Improving Diagnosis

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Wednesday, January 27th, 2016

• February is right around the corner, which is recognized as American Heart Month. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, heart disease causes 1 in 4 deaths throughout the U.S.¹ This makes it the leading cause of death for both men and women; fortunately, it is sometimes preventable.
  
  Heart health is important, and biomedical informatics is leading the charge, helping both patients and doctors monitor heart-related disease to protect themselves and their health.

How Much Do Health IT Professionals Earn?

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Wednesday, January 6th, 2016

• A new year means new changes for many as they pursuit their goals and work to fulfill their resolutions. The gym fills up with people who want to get in shape and university classrooms see more students who are returning to earn their degrees. For others, they may go in search of new career opportunities – particularly in the blossoming field of health IT.
  
  

How Health IT is Advancing Collaborative Care

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Wednesday, December 9th, 2015

• 2016 is fast approaching and according to NY Daily News, it will be the year of remote doctor check-ins and health monitoring via apps. This should come as no surprise as advances in health IT have given way to faster and more convenient ways for patients to care for themselves or for clinicians to care for patients from a distance.
  
  

Digital Technology Takes on Mindfulness

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Wednesday, November 25th, 2015

• We've talked extensively about the benefits of biomedical informatics to the everyday consumer. From devices that detect seizure activity to 3D printing technology, informatics touches everyone.
  
  You are probably familiar with the smartphone apps and devices that are dedicated to counting steps, measuring sleep, and managing calories. What you may not be familiar with is the growing utilization of technology to help promote mindfulness and emotional wellbeing.

SBMI Heads to San Francisco for #AMIA2015

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Wednesday, November 11th, 2015

• The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) 2015 Annual Symposium begins Saturday in San Francisco and SBMI has faculty, staff and students attending and playing an active role in the symposium. We want to acknowledge the following members of the SBMI community that will be participating in #AMIA 2015 sessions, panels and presentations.
  
  

Most Popular EHR: Who is Number One?

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Wednesday, November 4th, 2015

• Work-life balance, health benefits, stock options and paid vacation: these are all important perks when someone is looking for a new job. But when a professional in the health informatics field is searching for job opportunities, the type of EHR vendor that is used at various healthcare systems might be more important than any work perk available.
  
  Professionals in the industry all have preference for certain systems but have you ever wondered what the most popular EHR is? Well Software Advice has the answer for you as the software research organization recently crafted this infographic to examine the top 10 EHR vendors. The rankings are based on a survey of 575 regular users, brand search traffic results and the number of social media followers.
  
  What do you think; is a certain vendor too high or too low….or not there at all? Let us know if you agree or disagree by using #SBMIBlog in a tweet or Facebook post and give us your opinion.
  
  

The Future (and Present) of 3D Printing

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Thursday, October 29th, 2015

• Not too long ago, 3D printers were bright, shiny inventions that captivated the public eye, printing working toys and mechanical components in bright, primary colors. Their cost made them almost prohibitive for most to own, and their functionality wasn’t well understood by the public.
  
  These days, despite the fact that the technology is still relatively new, 3D printing is quickly becoming more ubiquitous. Many public high schools boast one or more 3D printers. Manufacturers use them to increase efficiency. Movie props and sets are increasingly tapping into the capabilities of 3D printers, which are even taking hold as a consumer good as their price declines and they become more accessible as household items.
  
  All of that is not to say that 3D printing is becoming old hat. While the initial magic may have worn off, the technology behind 3D printing continues to hold incredible promise for the field of medical informatics.

Time To Implement IOM Health IT Recommendations For Improving Diagnosis

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Wednesday, October 21st, 2015
written by Dean Sittig and Hardeep Singh

• One year ago, we highlighted missed opportunities in diagnosis of a patient who presented with Ebola in Dallas, Texas; a harmful misdiagnosis with substantial public health implications. Acknowledging human errors were also made, we emphasized specific areas of risk within the electronic health record (EHR)-enabled diagnostic process.
  
  On September 22, 2015, the Institute of Medicine (IOM, now called National Academy of Medicine) released its report “Improving Diagnosis in Health Care” and made several recommendations regarding use and/or misuse of EHRs in the diagnostic process. In this post, we speculate on possible scenarios if some of the recommendations, specifically those related to EHRs, were in place before September 2014. We discuss how the process of diagnosing US Ebola Patient Zero at the initial hospital, or for that matter any EHR-enabled hospital emergency department (ED) across the US, might have been different.