Using informatics to improve healthcare quality

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into contemporary challenges associated with applying informatics and big data to healthcare quality improvement.

Design/methodology/approach: This paper is a narrative literature review.

Findings: Informatics serve as a bridge between big data and its applications, which include artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and point-of-care clinical decision making. Healthcare investment returns, measured by overall population health, healthcare operation efficiency and quality, are currently considered to be suboptimal. The challenges posed by informatics/big data span a wide spectrum from individual patients to government/regulatory agencies and healthcare providers.

Practical implications: The paper utilizes informatics and big data to improve population health and healthcare quality improvement.

Originality/value: Informatics and big data utilization have the potential to improve population health and service quality. This paper discusses the challenges posed by these methods as the author strives to achieve the aims.

Keywords: Analytics; Big data; Data security; Healthcare quality; Informatics.