Aziz Hassan A
Office of Academic Affairs, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.
J Taibah Univ Med Sci. 2016 Oct 11;12(1):78-81. doi: 10.1016/j.jtumed.2016.08.011. eCollection 2017 Feb.
Recognized as information intensive, healthcare requires timely, accurate information from many different sources generated by health information systems (HIS). With the availability of information technology in today's world and its integration in healthcare systems; the term "Public Health Informatics (PHI)" was coined and used. The main focus of PHI is the use of information science and technology for promoting population health rather than of individuals. PHI has a disease prevention rather than treatment focus in order to prevent chain of events or disease spread. Moreover, PHI often operates at the level of government rather than at the private sector. This review article provides an overview of the field of PHI and compares between paper based surveillance system and Public Health Information Networks (PHIN). The current trends and future challenges of applying PHI systems in KSA were also reported.
医疗保健被认为是信息密集型领域，它需要来自健康信息系统（HIS）产生的许多不同来源的及时、准确信息。随着当今世界信息技术的可用性及其在医疗保健系统中的整合，“公共卫生信息学（PHI）”这一术语应运而生并被使用。PHI的主要重点是利用信息科学和技术促进人群健康，而非个人健康。PHI关注疾病预防而非治疗，以防止事件链或疾病传播。此外，PHI通常在政府层面运作，而非私营部门。这篇综述文章概述了PHI领域，并比较了纸质监测系统和公共卫生信息网络（PHIN）。还报告了在沙特阿拉伯应用PHI系统的当前趋势和未来挑战。
