Glossary

Clinical decision support tools – a technology system that helps to support and potentially influence human decision making through prompts, reminders, and other interaction with the clinician (Ketcham, McBride, Tietz, & Padden, 2016)

Computer Literacy: “the knowledge and ability to utilize computers and related technology efficiently, with a range of skills covering levels from elementary use to programming and advanced problem solving” (Clinical Systems Transformation Project, n.d.).

Digital Literacy: “the interest, attitude and ability of individuals to appropriately use digital technology and communication tools to access, manage, integrate, analyze and evaluate information, construct new knowledge, create and communicate with others”(British Columbia Ministry of Education, 2018).

Data: raw fact that lacks meaning (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012)

Digital health: Digital health refers to the use of information technology/electronic communication tools, services, and processes to deliver health care services or to facilitate better health.

Digital health helps Canadians access better quality care more efficiently through solutions and services such as electronic medical records, telehomecare, virtual visits, and patient portals (Canada Health Infoway, 2018).

Electronic medical record (EMR) – an electronic record of a patient’s health information, which can include one or more encounters in a health care setting (HIMSS, 2018)

Health informatics: “The use of information technology (including both hardware and software) in combination with information management concepts and methods to support the delivery of health care” (Mandil, 1989). Health informatics is the “umbrella term encompassing medical, nursing, dental, and pharmacy informatics among others. It focuses on the recipient of care rather than on the discipline of the caregiver” (Kennedy & Hussey, 2015).

Health Literacy: “the cognitive and social skills which determine the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to, understand and use information in ways which promote and maintain good health” (World Health Organization (WHO), 2017).

Information: data that are interpreted, organized, or structured. Data that is processed using knowledge or data made functional through the application of knowledge (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012)

Information Literacy: “ is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning” (American Library Association, 2016).

Informational Privacy is the right of individuals to determine how, when, to whom, and for what purposes any personal information will be transmitted to others (Fraser, 2015)

Information Security is focused on maintaining the confidentiality of information, maintaining the integrity of data (i.e., preventing information from being corrupted, either unintentionally or maliciously) and maintaining the availability of information systems and data.  (Fraser, 2015)

Knowledge: awareness and understanding of a set of information and ways that information can be made useful to support a specific task or arrive at a decision (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012)

Nursing informatics: The definition of nursing informatics has been evolving over several decades but has been most recently described as incorporating the science of nursing with information, technological, communication and analytical sciences to support the integration of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom into the provision of evidence-based nursing care (Topaz & Pruinelli, 2017; American Nurses Association, 2014).

Personalized health care refers to the delivery of health care based on the uniqueness of the client receiving the care. Care is customized to the client rather than the traditional clinician-centred or disease-focused medical model of care (Han, 2016).

Personalized medicine (also called precision medicine) incorporates an individual’s genetic blueprint alongside their lifestyle and environment. This data can be compared alongside data from thousands or even millions of others (i.e. big data) to predict illness or determine the best preventative strategies/treatments (Marr, 2015). Collected data may also be used to predict epidemics, develop new drugs, and cures for currently untreatable diseases.

Pharmacogenomics is a part of personalized health care. Pharmacogenomics is the study of how genes affect a person’s response to particular drugs. This relatively new field combines pharmacology (the science of drugs) and genomics (the study of genes and their functions) to develop effective, safe medications and doses that are tailored to variations in a person’s genes.

Point-of-care technologies – a technology that is used during a clinical encounter, typically within close proximity to the actual care event (Mitchell & McBride, 2016)

Telemedicine applications   – telecommunication technology that supports remote health care practices through video, voice, and other data exchange (HIMSS, 2014)

Wisdom: knowledge applied in a practical way or translated into actions; knowing when and how to apply knowledge (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012)

 

 

 

 

 

References

American Library Association. (2016). Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework

American Nurses Association. (2014). Nursing informatics: Scope and standards of practice, 2nd ed. Silver Spring, MD: Nursesbooks.org.

British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2018). Digital Literacy. Retrieved from https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/teach/teaching-tools/digital-literacy

Canada Health Infoway. (2018). What is digital health. Retrieved from https://infoway-inforoute.ca/en/what-we-do/benefits-of-digital-health/what-is-digital-health

Fraser, R. (2015). Data privacy and security. In K. J. Hannah, P. Hussey, M. A. Kennedy, & M. J. Ball (Eds.) Introduction to nursing informatics (4th ed.) (pp. 231-250). London, UK: Springer..

Han, C. J. (2016). A concept analysis of personalized health care in nursing. Nurse Forum. 51, 32–39.

HIMSS. (2018). Electronic health records.  Retrieved from: https://www.himss.org/library/ehr

HIMSS. (2014). Introduction to telehealth. Retrieved from: https://www.himss.org/introduction-telehealth

Kennedy, M. A., & Hussey, P. (2015). Nursing Informatics. In K. J. Hannah, P. Hussey, M. A. Kennedy, & M. J. Ball (Eds.) Introduction to Nursing Informatics (4th ed.) (pp. 11-33). London, UK: Springer.

Ketcham, M., McBride, S., Tietze, M., & Padden, J. (2016). Clinical decision support systems. In S. McBride & M. Tietze (Eds.), Nursing Informatics for the Advanced Practice Nurse: Patient safety, quality, outcomes, and interprofessional. New York, NY: Springer.

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2012). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (2^nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Mitchell, MB., & McBride, S. (2016). Electronic health records and point-of-care technology. In S. McBride & M. Tietze (Eds.), Nursing Informatics for the Advanced Practice Nurse: Patient safety, quality, outcomes, and interprofessional. New York, NY: Springer.

Topaz, M., & Pruinelli, L. (2017). Big data and nursing: Implications for the future. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 232, 165-171.

World Health Organization. (2017). World Health Organization (WHO). Track 2: Health Literacy and Health Behaviour. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/7gchp/track2/en/