Current issues in health care informatics

Health care informatics has emerged as a diverse and important new field of study. The field can be very broadly defined as the science that addresses how best to use information to improve health care. The field includes the four areas of bioinformatics, medical informatics, public health informatics, and consumer health informatics. Health care informatics applications can be used to improve the quality of patient care, to increase productivity, and to provide access to knowledge. After providing an overview of the field, the 10 articles contained in this special issue are briefly discussed. The first six articles address a diverse set of topics such as the use of health care informatics to conduct research, clinical information systems used by the U.S. Air Force, electronic medical records and physician satisfaction in Oman, and a point of care documentation system used by hospice care providers. The last four articles discuss the complex issues raised by the implementation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).