BMJ  2005;331:566-568 (10 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7516.566

Clinical review

ABC of health informatics

What is health information?

University of Dundee.

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Introduction

Information is an ethereal commodity. One definition describes it as the data and knowledge that intelligent systems (human and artificial) use to support their decisions. Health informatics helps doctors with their decisions and actions, and improves patient outcomes by making better use of information—making more efficient the way patient data and medical knowledge is captured, processed, communicated, and applied. These challenges have become more important since the internet made access to medical information easier for patients.

This ABC series focuses on information handling during routine clinical tasks, using scenarios based on Pendleton's seven-stage consultation model (see box opposite). The articles cover wider issues arising from, and extending beyond, the immediate consultation (see box below). Questions on clinical information that often arise in clinical and reflective practice are dealt with, but discussion of specific computer systems is avoided (a glossary of terms appears on bmj.com, . . . [Full text of this article]

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Capturing and using information

Representing, interpreting and displaying information

Sources of clinical information

The costs of information

Assessing the quality of information

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