Informatics for the Clinical Laboratory: A Practical Guide for the Pathologist / Edition 1

by Daniel Cowan

Overview

This series is directed to healthcare professionals who are leading the tra- formation of health care by using information and knowledge. Launched in 1988 as Computers in Health Care, the series offers a broad range of titles: some addressed to specific professions such as nursing, medicine, and health administration; others to special areas of practice such as trauma and radi- ogy. Still other books in the series focus on interdisciplinary issues, such as the computer-based patient record, electronic health records, and networked healthcare systems. Renamed Health Informatics in 1998 to reflect the rapid evolution in the discipline now known as health informatics, the series will continue to add titles that contribute to the evolution of the field. In the series, eminent - perts, serving as editors or authors, offer their accounts of innovations in health informatics. Increasingly, these accounts go beyond hardware and so- ware to address the role of information in influencing the transformation of healthcare delivery systems around the world. The series also increasingly focuses on “peopleware” and the organizational, behavioral, and societal changes that accompany the diffusion of information technology in health services environments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780387953625
Publisher:	Springer New York
Publication date:	10/29/2002
Series:	Health Informatics
Edition description:	2002
Pages:	324
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.36(d)

Table of Contents

Laboratory Informatics and the Laboratory Information System.- Developing the Laboratory Information System.- Validation of the Laboratory Information System.- Security and Confidentiality on Laboratory Computer Systems.- Total Cost of Ownership.- Computer Basics.- Computer Networks.- Interfaces.- Bar Coding in the Laboratory.- Wireless Communication Networks in the Laboratory.- Essential Software.- Clinical and Anatomic Pathology Database Design.- Process Modeling.- Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems.- Imaging, Image Analysis and Computer-Assisted Quantitation.- to Telepathology.

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Shaun Grannis, MD (Indiana University Medical Center)
Description: The book describes information technology concepts as they relate to laboratory information sciences. The book covers a wide range of issues ranging from technical subjects such as computer basics and computer networks to management-related issues such as determining total cost of ownership (TCO) and ensuring security and confidentiality in the lab.
Purpose: The book is intended to help the reader become both literate and familiar with major issues related to clincal laboratory informatics as well as the major tools used in the field. An understanding of clinical laboratory informatics is critical to the development of a comprehensive Electronic Medical Records and clinical data repository. Laboratory information drives many decision support systems. Therefore, the development of robust, standardized laboratory information systems is critical to the enterprise health care information system. The authors describe general aspects of laboratory informatics, but fail to emphasize the need for information standardization, and the consequences of non-standard information. To this end, the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED) encoding system and "Logical Observations, Identifier Names, and Codes" (LOINC) were reviewed but in insufficient detail.
Audience: As described in the preface, this book emerged from a laboratory informatics course for pathology residents and clinical laboratory science fellows. As a result, the material is introductory in nature but written using a sophisticated vocabulary. The authors often use clinical terms and scenarios that may be unfamiliar to those not well-versed in clinical nomenclature. Therefore, the appropriate audience for this includes medical residents, advanced allied health care professionals, and practicing health care providers with a need to learn about laboratory informatics. A majority of the authors hold professional degrees (M.D. and/or Ph.D.) and are all members of the faculty and staff of the Department of Pathology of the University of Texas Medical Branch with experience in the areas in which they write. Three of the ten authors list B.S. degrees only.
Features: The book addresses the following general areas: concept utilization, organization and management of laboratory information systems, including security considerations; technical aspects of computer systems and networks; and an overview of specific laboratory information system applications. One interesting and informative feature of the book is that it includes an entire chapter describing bar code technology. Such technology, while ubiquitous in healthcare, is infrequently described in clinical informatics literature. Further, end-of-chapter glossaries are included, which provide easy access to unfamiliar terms. One shortcoming of the book is the lack of an introductory outline at the beginning of each chapter. An outline, or chapter summary helps guide the reader through complex topics. Notably missing were references later than 1998. It appears that perhaps the book's manuscript was completed in 1998, given the lack of references after that year. Given that the field of laboratory informatics is rapidly evolving, that is a substantial shortcoming. Additionally, there was little mention of the emerging field of genomics and its relationship to laboratory informatics. Arguably, a large portion of the forseeable future of research in laboratory information sciences and clinical informatics will focus on managing and analyzing genetic information. This topic was not adequately covered. One would be careful to note that the discussion of "genetic algorithms" included in the book should not be confused with "genomics." These are two entirely separate fields of study.
Assessment: This book is appropriate for health care workers who seek a broad introduction to laboratory information sciences. Readers will also learn about information management in addition to core issues of information modelling, database design and technical computer basics. However, the book fails to discuss the role that laboratory information sciences will play in managing and analyzing the human genome. Because genomics and proteinomics are emerging as important areas for laboratory informatics research, the lack of its inclusion is a shortcoming.

Doody's Review Service

Reviewer: Shaun Grannis, MD(Indiana University Medical Center)
Description: The book describes information technology concepts as they relate to laboratory information sciences. The book covers a wide range of issues ranging from technical subjects such as computer basics and computer networks to management-related issues such as determining total cost of ownership (TCO) and ensuring security and confidentiality in the lab.
Purpose: The book is intended to help the reader become both literate and familiar with major issues related to clincal laboratory informatics as well as the major tools used in the field. An understanding of clinical laboratory informatics is critical to the development of a comprehensive Electronic Medical Records and clinical data repository. Laboratory information drives many decision support systems. Therefore, the development of robust, standardized laboratory information systems is critical to the enterprise health care information system. The authors describe general aspects of laboratory informatics, but fail to emphasize the need for information standardization, and the consequences of non-standard information. To this end, the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED) encoding system and "Logical Observations, Identifier Names, and Codes" (LOINC) were reviewed but in insufficient detail.
Audience: As described in the preface, this book emerged from a laboratory informatics course for pathology residents and clinical laboratory science fellows. As a result, the material is introductory in nature but written using a sophisticated vocabulary. The authors often use clinical terms and scenarios that may be unfamiliar to those not well-versed in clinical nomenclature. Therefore, the appropriate audience for this includes medical residents, advanced allied health care professionals, and practicing health care providers with a need to learn about laboratory informatics. A majority of the authors hold professional degrees (M.D. and/or Ph.D.) and are all members of the faculty and staff of the Department of Pathology of the University of Texas Medical Branch with experience in the areas in which they write. Three of the ten authors list B.S. degrees only.
Features: The book addresses the following general areas: concept utilization, organization and management of laboratory information systems, including security considerations; technical aspects of computer systems and networks; and an overview of specific laboratory information system applications. One interesting and informative feature of the book is that it includes an entire chapter describing bar code technology. Such technology, while ubiquitous in healthcare, is infrequently described in clinical informatics literature. Further, end-of-chapter glossaries are included, which provide easy access to unfamiliar terms. One shortcoming of the book is the lack of an introductory outline at the beginning of each chapter. An outline, or chapter summary helps guide the reader through complex topics. Notably missing were references later than 1998. It appears that perhaps the book's manuscript was completed in 1998, given the lack of references after that year. Given that the field of laboratory informatics is rapidly evolving, that is a substantial shortcoming. Additionally, there was little mention of the emerging field of genomics and its relationship to laboratory informatics. Arguably, a large portion of the forseeable future of research in laboratory information sciences and clinical informatics will focus on managing and analyzing genetic information. This topic was not adequately covered. One would be careful to note that the discussion of "genetic algorithms" included in the book should not be confused with "genomics." These are two entirely separate fields of study.
Assessment: "This book is appropriate for health care workers who seek a broad introduction to laboratory information sciences. Readers will also learn about information management in addition to core issues of information modelling, database design and technical computer basics. However, the book fails to discuss the role that laboratory information sciences will play in managing and analyzing the human genome. Because genomics and proteinomics are emerging as important areas for laboratory informatics research, the lack of its inclusion is a shortcoming. "