Health informatics is the field concerned with the optimal use of information aided by technology to improve health care. It involves the intersection of information science, computer science, and health care. Public health informatics applies computer and information science to public health practice, research, and learning. Health informatics provides information to make better health care decisions and aims to acquire, manipulate, store, display, and communicate information to improve health outcomes.

1. Health Informatics
Emiru Merdassa(MSc, Assistant professor)
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2. Definition
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Informatics
 The science concerned with gathering, manipulating, storing, retrieving
and classifying recorded information.
 Is about information, not technology.
Health informatics
 It is the field concerned with the optimal use of information often
aided by technology to improve individual health, public health, health
care, and biomedical research(Hersh,2009).
 It is the intersection of information science, computer science and
health care.

3. What do you understand?
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4. Public Health Informatics
 Public health informatics is the systematic application of
information and computer science and technology to
public health practice, research, and learning.
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5. Why Health Informatics ?
▪ Health Informatics provides information to make decisions
▪ Better information leads to better decisions
▪ Health care, management, planning and policy all need good/quality
information
▪ Key elements of Informatics:
 Acquisition
 Manipulation
 Storage
 Display
 Communication
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6. Health Informatics Principles
 Use data and standards
 Interoperability
 Incremental development and strengthening of
systems
 Enterprise architecture approach
 Collaborative communities
 Confidentiality & privacy
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7. Health Informatics…
Health informatics tools
 It includes clinical guidelines, formal medical terminologies,
information & communication systems.
 It is applied to the areas of nursing, clinical care, dentistry,
pharmacy, public health and (bio)medical research.
Domains of health informatics
 Delivery of care and promotion of health
 Information management and technology
 Organizational settings of health care
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8. Introduction to computer
 The word computer comes from the word “compute”, which means,“to
calculate”
 Thereby, a computer is an electronic device that can perform arithmetic
operations at high speed
 It is an electronic device, operating under the control of instructions.
 A computer is a device, which accepts the data from the input devices. It
processes the input data to produce the required output and stores it as
required.
 (Device) > (Accepts input data) > (Processes data) > (Output) > (Stores
processed data).
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9. Cont’d…
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10. Computer Generations
 “Generation” in computer talk is a step in technology. It
provides a framework for the growth of computer
industry
 Originally it was used to distinguish between various
hardware technologies, but now it has been extended to
include both hardware and software
 Till today, there are five computer generations
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11. I. First generation computers(1940 - 1956)
 These computers were named Eniac, Edvac, and Univac.
 These computers were made of vacuum tubes
 They were huge in size and very costly to maintain.
II. Second generation computers (1956 - 1963)
 Transistor developed in the place of vacuum tubes.
 It is more reliable, much cheaper and smaller.This generation
had more computing power, were smaller in size, easier to
maintain and were more affordable than the previous
generation.
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12. III. Third generation computers (1964 to 1971)
 Used integrated circuits.
 The transistors were miniaturised and kept on silicon
chips(semiconductors) which drastically increased the speed
and efficiency of computers.
IV. Fourth generation computers (1971 to 2010)
 Used microprocessors.
 The microprocessors were smaller and had tremendous
computing capabilities.
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13. VI. Fifth generation computers(2010 onwards)
 Used the concept of Artificial intelligence(AI).
 The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop
devices that respond to natural language input and are
capable of learning and self-organization.
 AI : The branch of computer science that is concerned
with the automation of intelligent behaviours
 Used to solve problems that can not be solved using
algorithmic solution.
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14. 1940 - 1956
Vacuum Tubes
1956 - 1963
Transistors
1964 - 1971
Integrated
Circuits
1971 - 2010
Microprocessors Artificial
Intelligence
2010
Onwards
History of Computer
Generations
1 2 3 4 5

15. Computer Generations
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16. Types of computer
 There are a lot of terms used to describe computers.
 Most of these words imply the size, expected use or
capability of the computer.
0 Microcomputers
─ Desktop
─ Personal Computer(PC)
0 Minicomputer
0 Mainframe
0 Supercomputer
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17. I. Microcomputers
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 Desktop:A personal or microcomputer sufficient to fit on
a desk
 Laptop:A portable computer with an integrated screen
and keyboard. Smaller in size than a desktop computer and
larger than a notebook
 Palmtop /Digital Diary/Notebook/PDAs: A hand-sized
computer. Palmtops have no keyboard but the screen serves
both as an input and output device.

18. Desktop Laptop
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19. II. Mini Computer
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 It is a multi-user computer system which is capable of
supporting hundreds of users (up to 250) simultaneously.
 Minicomputers lies between microcomputers and
mainframe.

20. III. Mainframe Computers
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 It is a computer for their large size, amount of storage,
processing power and high level of reliability.
 used by large organizations for special applications requiring high
volumes of data processing.
 Example: banks, insurance companies, railways that need on-line
processing of large number of transactions.

21. IV. Super-computers
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 It is a computer that performs at
or near the currently highest
operational rate for computers.
very expensive
 used for scientific and engineering
applications that must handle very
large databases or do a great
amount of computation.
 Example: weather forecasting,
animated graphics, fluid dynamic
calculations, nuclear energy
research, and petroleum
exploration etc.
 Theycan perform over a trillion
calculations per second.

22. Basic characteristics of computer
 Speed: computer can perform millions (1,000,000) of
instructions and even more per second.
 Accuracy: the errors in computer are due to human and
inaccurate data.
 Diligence: a computer is free from tiredness, lack of
concentration, fatigue, etc.
 Versatility: It means the capacity to perform completely
different type of work.
 Power of remembering: any information can be stored
and recalled as long as you require it
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23. Cont.…
 No IQ: computer is a dumb machine and it cannot do any
work without instruction from the user.
 No Feeling: It does not have feelings or emotion, taste,
knowledge and experience.
 Storage: the Computer has an inbuilt memory where it
can store a large amount of data.
 You can also store data in secondary storage devices such as
floppies, which can be kept outside your computer and can
be carried to other computers.
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24. Components of computer
 I. Input Devices:The computer recognizes its input such as a
keyboard, mouse, scanner, from these devices, it accepts the
data or information.
 II. Output units :The data is further processed by the system
unit and provides the required information using output devices
such as monitor screen, printer, speaker etc.
 III. Storage unit: Memory devices basically store the data or
information or instructions. Further divided into two.
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25. I. Primary storage
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 Used to hold running program instructions
 Used to hold data, intermediate results, and results of
ongoing processing of job(s)
 Fast in operation
 Small Capacity
 Expensive
 Volatile (looses data on power dissipation)

26. II. Secondary storage
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 Used to hold data, stored program instructions and
information of stored jobs
 To store the processed data for long-term,
 The data stored permanently in this storage device such
as Hard Disks, DVD, Flash drives etc
 Slower than primary storage
 Large Capacity
 cheaper than primary storage
 Retains data even without power

27. …Components of computer
IV.Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
 It is the place where the actual executions of instructions
takes place during processing operation
 It is a section where all the arithmetic and logical
functions are carried out.
V. Controlling unit:
 directs all operations inside the computer.
 It is known as nerve center of the computer, because it
controls and coordinates all hardware operation
 It gives command to transfer data from the input device
to the memory (IAS) of arithmetic and logic unit.
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28. Central Processing Unit (CPU)
 It is the brain of a computer system
 It is responsible for controlling the operations of all other
units of a computer system
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29. The computer system Concept
 A system has following three characteristics:
1) A system has more than one element
2) All elements of a system are logically related
3) All elements of a system are controlled in a manner to
achieve the system goal
 A computer is a system as it comprises of integrated
components (input unit, output unit, storage unit, and CPU)
that work together to perform the steps called for in the
executing program
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30. Cont.…
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31. …The computer system Concept
 Computers are a combination of hardware and software
 Hardware refers to the physical devices of a computer
system. Software is a set of programs.
 Software package is a group of programs that solve a
specific problem or perform a specific type of job
 Program is a sequence of instructions written in a
language that can be understood by a computer
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32. Classification of Software
Classification
of Software
System software
(Background
software)
Application software
(End user software)

33. System Software
❑ It manages to perform all the utility functions, such as
booting up the computer and it is programmed to complete
the loading, executing, retrieval of files from the computer
and storing the data in the secondary storage devices.
System software is designed to controls
and manages the hardware devices and
end-user applications.

34. ➢ The Operating System (OS), is most common type of system
software, it is the backbone of a computer system.
➢ It Controls and Manages the entire operations of a computer.
➢ All computers, tablets and smartphones need an Operating
System to function properly.
Operating System

35. Application Software
General-Purpose
Application Software
Word processors, spreadsheets,
databases, desktop publishing
packages, graphics packages, etc.
Specific-Purpose
Application Software
Air traffic control systems,
learning management systems for
universities, etc.
Application software is a group of programs
facilitates the end-user with different features
in the computer to perform certain tasks.
Examples: Microsoft Office, Microsoft Edge, Safari
Application software can be categorized into two types

36. Logical System Architecture
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Fig1. Relationship among hardware, system software, application software, and
users of a computer system.

37. Utility software is designed to help analyze, configure, optimize
or maintain a computer.
For Example:
❖ Anti-virus utilities scan for computer viruses.
❖ Backup software can make copies of all
information stored on a disk and restore either the
entire disk (e.g. in an event of disk failure) or
selected files (e.g. in an event of accidental
deletion).
❖ Data compression utilities output a shorter stream
or a smaller file when provided with a stream or
file.
❖ Disk compression utilities can transparently
compress/uncompress the contents of a disk,
increasing the capacity of the disk.
❖ Disk defragmenters can detect computer files
whose contents are scattered across several
locations on the hard disk, and move the
fragments to one location to increase efficiency.
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38. Command Line Interface(CLI): This type of operating system
requires written typing of commands to the computer; also called character-
based operating systems. Example: MS-DOS
User Interface Operating Systems
Graphical User Interface(GUI): Provides the easy user interface with
pointing devices or touch screens to select the icons from the screen. GUI makes it
easier to work on a computer, even for a novice user.
Example:Windows, MAC, Linux

39. ….Cont.
GUI CLI
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40. Thank you !
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