Guide to Health Informatics 3rd Edition

July 15, 2014 § 7 Comments

It’s now almost 20 years since I started to write the first edition, and over 10 years since I wrote the second. I’m very happy to announce that the text for the updated and much expanded third edition is now completed.

The 3rd Edition of the Guide to Health Informatics comes in paper and e-book versions. Purchase of the print version comes bundled with access to the VitalSource e-book version.

A 20% discount is available when you order it direct from the publisher – just quote code BHP01 at checkout.

You can also buy it from Amazon UK or Amazon US, and other bookstores (ISBN-13:978-1444170498). If you wish to purchase the e-book only, several options are available including a kindle edition, and the VitalSource edition, which offers options including time-limited rental, as well as full purchase, and bulk purchase for classes.

Complimentary textbook e-inspection copies are available to qualifying instructors for review prior to course adoption.

The book has a strong emphasis on demonstrating what works and what does not work in informatics. I have created a new evaluative framework that runs through the book, to help us understand why some classes of intervention appear to work so much better than others. As a taster, the new edition has 34 chapters, and is significantly longer than the 2nd edition.  The new chapters are each quite extensive in length, and focus as much as possible on basic concepts and principles, rather than simple narrative descriptions of the topics. New chapters include:

  • Implementation
  • Information system safety
  • Social networks and social media interventions
  • Model Building for Decision Support, Data Analysis and Scientific Discovery
  • Population surveillance and public health informatics
  • Clinical bioinformatics and Personalised medicine
  • Consumer Informatics

I want to thank all of those who made so many suggestions to me earlier on about what was needed in the new book. I hope I have covered off the most important topics for you. As always the balance is between creating an introductory work which has some longevity and explores the core concepts needed to understand our discipline with a single and unified voice,  or writing an encyclopaedic multi-author work that tries to do everything, but has too many voices, becomes out of date quickly, and overwhelms students. At least for this edition I think we have still managed to keep the book to being a ‘single voice’ overview – although I have had many expert colleagues help me with sourcing and structuring the material and checking what has been written. All the old chapters have had overhauls, most of them very significantly (a lot has happened in the last 10 years).

For those who are looking to use the 3rd edition as a part of a course, here is the new table of contents.

Part 1 – Basic Concepts in Informatics 1. Models 2. Information 3. Systems

Part 2 – Clinical Informatics Skills 4. Communication 5. Structuring 6. Questioning 7. Searching 8. Making decisions

Part 3 – Information Systems in Healthcare 9. Information management systems 10. The Electronic Health Record 11. Designing and evaluating information and communication systems 12. Implementation 13. Information System safety 14. Information economics

Part 4 – Guideline and Protocol-based Systems 15. Guidelines, protocols and evidence-based healthcare 16. Computer-based protocol systems 17. Designing, disseminating and applying protocols

Part 5 – Communication Systems in Healthcare 18. Communication system basics; Interlude – The Internet and World Wide Web; 19. Information and Communication networks 20. Social networks and social media interventions 21. Telehealth and mobile health

Part 6 – Language, Coding and Classification 22. Terms, codes and classification 23. Healthcare terminologies and classification systems 24. Natural language and formal terminology

Part 7 – Clinical Decision Support and Analytics 25. Clinical Decision Support Systems; Interlude – Artificial Intelligence in Medicine; 26. Computational reasoning methods 27. Model Building for Decision Support, Data Analysis and Scientific Discovery

Part 8 – Specialized applications for health informatics 28. Patient monitoring and control 29. Population surveillance and public health informatics 30. Bioinformatics 31. Clinical Bioinformatics and Personalized Medicine 32. Consumer Informatics

And I’ve broken with tradition from the earlier editions, and picked a gorgeous new cover.

Help us write the 3rd Edition of the Guide to Health Informatics

May 28, 2013 § 23 Comments

The Guide to Health Informatics 2nd Edition was published in 2003, and has endured surprisingly well over the following decade. One of the guiding principles for selecting material in that text was to focus on core ideas that had a long half-life. In other words, the was focus less on the ever changing “bleeding edge” of technology and its application, and more on foundational principles and topics.

Well, we are now beavering away at the third edition, and hope for the totally revised text to be completed by the end of 2013.

We would very much welcome feedback from the community about what you would like to see in the third edition. What new topics would you like to see covered (remembering that we are going to focus on long-half life ideas and topics). What new features would you like to see in the chapters? We currently have questions at the end of each chapter and further reading. We will use this web site as a place for online teaching materials (such as a PowerPoint deck with the figures used  in the text for teachers to download).

The table of contents for the 2nd edition is here if you want to look at it again. Some of the old topics will be substantially revised (for example all the material on the internet in health). All existing chapters are being updated with the latest material.

New chapters or topic sections are being prepared for:

  • The safety of e-health (what can go wrong, how do you minimize risks)
  • Nation-scale health IT systems – their designs, functions, risks and benefits (including HIEs).
  • Consumer Informatics
  • Social networks and media
  • Modeling and analyzing large scale data sets (big data).
  • Computational discovery systems

What else do you want? Now is your chance to help shape the text!

We will use this blog keep you up to date with progress on the new edition, and continue ask for feedback on the edition as it progresses.

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