3. E-Health/Health Informatics Relevant
in Rwanda
• Electronic health records
• Telemedicine
• Consumer health informatics
• Health knowledge management
• Virtual healthcare teams
• mHealth or m-Health
• Healthcare Information Systems
• Public Health Information Systems
• Community-based Information Systems
9. Virtual healthcare teams
“healthcare professionals who collaborate
and share information on patients through
digital equipment”
Source: Smeenk et al. 1997
14. Discussion
1. What are the most important Health
Informatics topics or technologies for
students in your field to know about?
2. What steps could be taken to improve their
integration into curriculum?
3. What topics or technologies would you most
like to learn more about?
Notes de l'éditeur
There are many, many technologies, systems and approached to enhancing medical and health science and practice with technology. Not all are appropriate for the Rwandan context right now. A constellation of a few higher priority ICT/Informatics should stand out for potential integration into faculty development activities and student curriculum.
Electronic health records: enabling the communication of patient data between different healthcare professionals (GPs, specialists etc.);
Telemedicine: physical and psychological treatments at a distance
Consumer health informatics: use of electronic resources on medical topics by healthy individuals or patients;
Health knowledge management: e.g. in an overview of latest medical journals, best practice guidelines or epidemiological tracking (examples include physician resources such as Medscape and MDLinx);
mHealth or m-Health: includes the use of mobile devices in collecting aggregate and patient level health data, providing healthcare information to practitioners, researchers, and patients, real-time monitoring of patient vitals, and direct provision of care (via mobile telemedicine);
Virtual healthcare teams: consisting of healthcare professionals who collaborate and share information on patients through digital equipment;
Healthcare Information Systems: also often refer to software solutions for appointment scheduling, patient data management, work schedule management and other administrative tasks surrounding health.