Resources: What is information/informatics and why it is important

Definitions: 

We might define Global Health Informatics as follows: "...global health informatics (GHI) emerged out of the broader biomedical informatics discipline as a distinct field focused on applying ICT to both public health and health care delivery in the context of low-to-middle income countries (LMICs)" - from What’s Past Is Prologue: A Scoping Review of Recent Public Health and Global Health Informatics Literature.

Informatics can be defined as: "the science of information, where information is data plus meaning", an extension of the statement that: "most definitions, regardless of their category, focus on data, information and knowledge as central objects of study in informatics".

This course, therefore will consider how information can be used to help tackle some of the health problems facing populations in LMICs.

Public Health

We also need to consider how informatics relates to Public Health:

Public Health Informatics has been defined as: "the application of informatics in areas of public health, including surveillance, prevention, preparedness, and health promotion. Public health informatics and the related population informatics, work on information and technology issues from the perspective of groups of individuals." (American Medical Informatics Association).

As stated in a report by the Pubic Health Informatics Institute, "Defining public health informatics as only IT severely limits the scope of the discipline’s capabilities". You can see more about the Public Health Informatics Institute on their web site.