Discussion: Foundational Pioneers in Informatics
The smartphone has become an increasingly valuable tool in the field of medicine. Because of the phone’s small size and powerful computing capabilities, doctors, nurses, and researchers use these smartphones in a wide range of areas. For example, smartphones can be used as an electrocardiogram, to perform ultrasound procedures, to track patient progress, and as a decision support tool for generating diagnoses (Ozdalga, Ozdalga & Ahuja, 2012). Like most innovative technologies, the smartphone and its applications are a result of many years of incremental research and development.
In this Discussion, you focus on those who set the stage for the field of informatics today. By Day 1, your Instructor will assign you one of the pioneers in the field of informatics to research.
To prepare:
- Read the articles listed in the Learning Resources for your assigned informatics pioneer.
- Conduct research in the Walden Library or on the Internet to find additional works by or information about the individual.
- Determine his or her area of interest and affiliations in the medical world.
- Reflect on the contributions he or she made to the field of informatics. What most interests you? What most surprises you?
- Consider how these contributions impact the field of informatics today.
- Assess why it is important to be familiar with the foundational documents of nursing informatics.
By tomorrow 11/30/2016 12pm
Post a minimum of 550 words essay in APA format with a minimum of 3 scholarly references (See list provided below), which addresses the level one headings below:
1) An overview of the individual to whom you were assigned, including his or her principal areas of interest and medical affiliations.
2) Highlight the contributions this individual made to the field of informatics, and explain how these contributions impact the field of informatics today.
3) Comment on the importance of being familiar with the foundational documents of nursing informatics.
Required Readings
Kaplan, B., Brennan, P., Dowling, A., Friedman, C., & Peel, V. (2001). Towards an informatics research agenda: Key people and organizational issues. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 8(3), 235–241.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
This article highlights key areas in the field of health informatics in which additional research needs to be conducted. The authors cite organizational and social trends, and they suggest questions that need to be addressed in these areas.
Pioneers in Informatics
Harriet Werley
Werley, H. H., Devine, E. C., & Zorn, C. R. (1988). Nursing needs its own minimum data set. The American Journal of Nursing, 88(12), 1651–1653.
Copyright 1988 by Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, Inc. via the Copyright Clearance Center.
In this article, Werley, Devine, and Zorn describe their development of the nursing minimum data set (NMDS). They also discuss how the NMDS was used and why it was important.
Werley, H. H., Devine, E. C., Zorn, C. R., Ryan, P., & Westra, B. L. (1991). The nursing minimum data set: Abstraction tool for standardized, comparable, essential data. American Journal of Public Health, 81(4), 421–426.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
In this article from 1991, the authors explain their usage of the nursing minimum data set to standardize collections of nursing data. The authors explore the importance of standardizing nursing data, as well as these data’s availability, reliability, and benefits at that time.
Hobbs, J. (2011). Political dreams, practical boundaries: The case of the Nursing Minimum Data Set, 1983–1990. Nursing History Review: Official Journal of the American Association for The History of Nursing, 19, 127–155.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
This article explores the development of the Nursing Minimum Data set (NMDS). The article details the contentious process that Harriet Werley utilized to identify information used in the NMDS.
Werley, H. (1972). Research in nursing as input to educational programs. Journal of Nursing Education, 11(4), 29-38.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
In this article, Harriet Werley describes the relationship between nursing research and nursing education programs. Werley cites numerous studies that emphasize the need for additional nursing research and its integration into practice and curricula.
Robert Ledley and Lee B. Lusted
Ledley, R. S., & Lusted, L. B. (1959). Reasoning foundations of medical diagnosis. Science, New Series, 130(3366), 9–21.
Copyright 1959 by American Association for the Advancement of Science. Reprinted by permission of American Association for the Advancement of Science via the Copyright Clearance Center.
This seminal article explores the research, observation, and risk involved in diagnosing a patient in 1959. The authors discuss the reasoning foundations behind how physicians made a medical diagnosis in their era.
Ledley, R. S. (1964). High-speed automatic analysis of biomedical pictures. Science, New Series, 146(3641), 216–223.
Copyright 1964 by American Association for the Advancement of Science. Reprinted by permission of American Association for the Advancement of Science via the Copyright Clearance Center.
The authors of this article describe contemporary technologies in the nursing field of 1964. In particular, they focus on the high-speed automatic analysis of biomedical pictures.
Ledley, R. (2004). Editorial for computerized medical imaging and graphics. Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics, 28(1–2), 1.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
This article explains how advances in medical imaging technology have drastically changed patient care. The author also defines and explains different types of medical imaging and graphics.
Ledley, R. S., & Lusted, L. B. (1960). The use of electronic computers in medical data processing: Aids in diagnosis, current information retrieval, and medical record keeping. IRE Transaction on Medical Electronics, ME-7(1), 31–47.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
In this article, the authors discuss the use of computers in medical data processing in 1960. The article explains how computers changed the abilities of physicians to make educated diagnoses and keep medical records.
