Clinical Informatics, Mass General Brigham, Somerville, MA, United States.
Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States.
J Med Internet Res. 2024 Oct 15;26:e60081. doi: 10.2196/60081.
Primary care informatics (PCI) professionals address workflow and technology solutions in a wide spectrum of health, ranging from optimizing the experience of the individual patient in the clinic room to supporting the health of populations and augmenting the work of frontline primary care clinical teams. PCI overlaps uniquely with 2 disciplines with an impact on societal health-primary care and health informatics. Primary care is a gateway to health care access and aims to synthesize and coordinate numerous, complex elements of patients' health and medical care in a holistic manner. However, over the past 25 years, primary care has become a specialty in crisis: in a post-COVID-19 world, workforce shortages, clinician burnout, and continuing challenges in health care access all contribute to difficulties in sustaining primary care. Informatics professionals are poised to change this trajectory. In this viewpoint, we aim to inform readers of the discipline of PCI and its importance in the design, support, and maintenance of essential primary care services. Although this work focuses on primary care in the United States, which includes general internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics (and depending on definition, includes specialties such as obstetrics and gynecology), many of the principles outlined can also be applied to comparable health care services and settings in other countries. We highlight (1) common global challenges in primary care, (2) recent trends in the evolution of PCI (personalized medicine, population health, social drivers of health, and team-based care), and (3) opportunities to move forward PCI with current and emerging technologies using the 4Cs of primary care framework. In summary, PCI offers important contributions to health care and the informatics field, and there are many opportunities for informatics professionals to enhance the primary care experience for patients, families, and their care teams.
初级保健信息学（PCI）专业人员在广泛的健康领域解决工作流程和技术解决方案，从优化诊所患者的体验到支持人群健康和增强一线初级保健临床团队的工作。PCI 与对社会健康有影响的两个学科（初级保健和健康信息学）独特地重叠。初级保健是获得医疗保健的门户，旨在以整体方式综合和协调患者健康和医疗护理的众多复杂要素。然而，在过去的 25 年中，初级保健已经成为一个危机中的专业领域：在后 COVID-19 时代，劳动力短缺、临床医生倦怠以及医疗保健获取方面的持续挑战都导致维持初级保健的困难。信息学专业人员正准备改变这一趋势。在这篇观点文章中，我们旨在向读者介绍 PCI 学科及其在设计、支持和维护基本初级保健服务中的重要性。尽管这项工作主要关注美国的初级保健，其中包括普通内科、家庭医学和儿科（并且根据定义，包括妇产科等专业），但概述的许多原则也可以应用于其他国家类似的医疗保健服务和环境。我们强调了（1）初级保健中的共同全球挑战，（2）PCI 发展的近期趋势（个性化医疗、人口健康、健康的社会驱动因素和基于团队的护理），以及（3）利用初级保健框架的 4C 使用当前和新兴技术推动 PCI 向前发展的机会。总之，PCI 为医疗保健和信息学领域做出了重要贡献，并且信息学专业人员有很多机会可以改善患者、家庭及其护理团队的初级保健体验。
