Reply by Author to Jesse Gorman on Informatics: Where Is It? by Linda Thede, PhD, RN-BC (January 23, 2012)
Dear Jesse:
Yes! We have unleashed a very powerful tool, the question is, will it control healthcare practitioners, or will healthcare practitioners control it? At present, without application of informatics principles, the former seems more evident. It is hoped that as more healthcare practitioners learn what is possible, are able to visualize how these features can be seamlessly integrated into workflow, and are able to work with cooperative IT programmers, the situation will move more towards the latter. Perhaps we should take a page from the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Issacson and engage those to work in healthcare informatics who believe that this can be done and are willing to expend the effort to do so. It is not a simple task - healthcare is complicated! But, just implementing a system to implement a system is counterproductive.
Linda Q. Thede, PhD, RN-BC
