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As computers become increasingly integral in our everyday lives, we're using and generating
more and more data every day. This is especially true in health care.
Whether caring for a patient, or carrying out research at a lab bench, health care professionals
face a constant flood of data and information. That's where the emerging field of health
informatics comes in.
Health informatics is an interdisciplinary field that applies computer, information and
cognitive sciences to improve health care, support biomedical education, and foster the
training of health professionals.
Simply put, health informatics is at the crossroads where data, information and knowledge meet.
Whether they're focused on a gene, a cell, an organ, an individual or society.
At the University of Minnesota, that crossroads is the Institute for Health Informatics, or
the IHI.
The IHI advances health in health care by facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration
leading to breakthrough discoveries in innovative applications in information management.
To do this, the IHI brings the resources of six schools and colleges of the University's
Academic Health Center to four complimentary initiatives.
First. Conduct and apply research. IHI scientists develop new and better tools, techniques and
technologies for bringing information to bear on health care.
Second. Educate. The IHI trains graduate students in both master's and Ph.D programs preparing
tomorrow's leaders for a wide range of careers related to health information.
Third. Engage the community. The IHI works with government agencies, health care providers
and others to provide advances in information technology for improving health care throughout
Minnesota.
Fourth. Build infrastructure. The IHI helps develop, commercialize and disseminate new
software, new technology, devices and other products to improve management of health related
information.
Through these four initiatives, IHI faculty members, students and partners are helping
find solutions to the most pressing questions in health care, biomedical research and education.
Questions like: What are the best ways to deliver high quality health care while controlling
cost? How can the Internet be used to improve access to health care in rural areas? How
can we design health computer systems to maximize usability and efficiency? And that's just
the beginning.
To learn more about the IHI and how it's advancing health care, biomedical research and education,
go to www.ihi.umn.edu.