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17: A Role for Health Informatics and Information Technology (HIIT): Shaping a Global Research Agenda to Eliminate Health Disparities

DOI:

10.1891/9780826103680.0017

Authors

  • Adams, Diane L.
  • Leath, Brenda A.

Abstract

Health professionals and consumers increasingly rely on various types of health-related data and information to support a broad range of functions ranging from public policy, research, service planning, and delivery through consumption. Informatics, the science of information management in health care, offers applications that can be used to support each of these functions and more. This chapter describes a role for health informatics and information technology (HIIT) in shaping a global research agenda to eliminate health disparities, covering international developments. HIIT can be useful in many ways to address disease burden and disparities. For example, it can support surveillance of disease and health threats, manage services and resource allocations, track service utilization, document epidemiological and etiological relationships in disease processes, facilitate clinical decision making, and organize patient health information.