Nursing Informatics History
Nursing Informatics History
Jumalon
So, what is health informatics? It's interdisciplinary because it's a combination of information
technology and healthcare. It's the study of technologically-based healthcare software and
hardware that's used to facilitate and enhance patient care and outcomes. Furthermore, nursing
informatics (NI) is a subspecialty of this field that rolls nursing science into the mix. It not only
supports nurses, but also other providers, patients, and stakeholders in decision-making to
ultimately enhance healthcare outcomes.
But wait, why have you never heard of it before? Let's take a look. When was the beginning of
nursing informatics? When computers began storing and managing our patient information in
large amounts, health informatics was technically born. It was the 1950s, and it was starting to
affect the nursing profession. In the 1960s the French first used the term informatique
medical to describe healthcare informatics.
Nursing informatics became an official subdivision of healthcare informatics in the 1980s. The
80s! As a high school junior, you can't help but think that was a long time ago, but for many in
the healthcare field, it seems fairly recent. For nursing informatics, the 1980s was the growth-
spurt decade which propelled it into the profession that it is today.
In the United States, the Capital Area Roundtable on Informatics in Nursing (CARING) is a group
of nurses focused on the advancement of information technology in healthcare. It came
together in 1982. Later, the American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA) was founded in
1992 and merged with CARING in 2010.
In 1983, the first journal of nursing informatics went into publication. It was called Computers in
Nursing then, but as of 2002 it was renamed CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing.
The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) recognized nursing as essential to the
further development of healthcare informatics and formed the IMIA/NI-SIG, Nursing Informatics
Special Interest Group in 1982.
In 1989, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) began working on the development of a
standardized nursing informatics language. Then the American Nursing Association (ANA)
named nursing informatics as a specialty in 1992 and issued the first credentialing exam in 1995.
In Canada, the National Nursing Informatics Project was initiated by the Canadian Nursing
Association (CNA) in 1998. It began identifying the defining characteristics of nursing
informatics.
1950s - use of computers in healthcare, mostly for financial transactions
1970s - First conference on nursing and computers.
1974 - Informatics papers specific to nursing appear on the national level
1980s - Medical informatics and Nursing Informatics specialty emerges.
1988 - First graduate program in nursing informatics at University of Maryland.
1992 - Nursing Informatics first recognized as a specialty for registered nurses by the ANA.
1995 - First certification exam for nursing informatics.
The word “Nursing Informatics” was made familiar to the Philippine community by the year
2008.
1996 - Philippine Medical Informatics Society (PMIS) was established which made a very strong
influence in the development of health informatics in the Philippines.
1998 - Faculty members of the University of the Philippines began formal education and
training in medical informatics and information science.
1999 - Standards of Health Information of the Philippines 1999 (SHIP99) was established. It was
headed by National Institute of Health of the UP Manila with the collaboration of Philippine
Nurses Association
2005-2006-Health Informatics was offered by UP- Manila College of Medicine (major in medical
informatics) and College of Arts and Sciences (major in bioinformatics)
2009 - This was later revised and included as Health Informatics course in CHED Memorandum
Order 14 Series of 2009. First Implementation of the integration of Nursing Informatics in the
undergraduate curriculum was on the summer of 2010.
As information technology and computing slowly advance HEALTH CARE practices nowadays,
there is seemingly a need to improve the preparation of our nursing students academically and
clinically as they engage themselves with a new concept of Nursing Informatics. Nursing schools
across the country has been implementing the course Informatics. However, there is a need to
standardize the contents of the course being implemented by nursing schools. Theoretical
concepts and practical applications should be aligned so that it may be applicable to the
Philippine setting.
Introduction
The words "nursing informatics" were unfamiliar among the nursing community until the year
2008. There were only a handful of people with knowledge and experience in nursing
informatics. The discipline has not yet found its recognition as a sub-specialty of nursing arts
and science in the country. The origin of this budding discipline indirectly came from the
pioneers of health informatics in the
The Philippine Medical Informatics Society (PMIS) and its founders had strong influence in the
development of health informatics in the Philippines. The PMIA was officially registered under
the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1996 by its board composed of eleven physicians.
The organization was headed by Dr. Alvin Marcelo.
Future Direction
Development of training, certification and credentialing programs are in the pipeline for the
Philippine Nursing Informatics Association. Future partnerships with local and international
nursing and health informatics organizations have started as well. Other programs are expected
to be slowly delivered with PNIA's CORE X strategic platform which stands for Competency,
Organization, Recognition, Experience, and Expertise. It is also a major thrust to support the use
of health information standards in the Philippines and to have nursing informatics specialists in
every hospital in the country.
Like many other disciplines, nursing informatics face many challenges while in its infancy stage.
The inclusion of informatics as an integral part of the undergraduate curriculum has been one of
the most influential factors for the increased awareness and interest in this field of nursing.
However, the contents of the curriculum was adapted from international materials which does
not match the local needs.
CHED as a Catalyst
Some of the major milestones in nursing informatics history in the Philippines includes the
participation of the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) in the development of Standards for
Health Information in the Philippines (SHIP) in 1999, the formation of the Master of Science in
Health Informatics (MSHI) which began in 2005, and the formation of the Philippine Nursing
Informatics Association (PNIA) in 2010 as a sub-specialty organization of PNA for nursing
informatics.
The nursing community was still yet to follow its international counterparts in the adoption of
information, communication and technology in nursing practice in the Philippines. Despite the
inclusion of Informatics course in the undergraduate curriculum which focused on basic desktop
applications, the need for genuine nursing informatics course had not yet been realized. In 2008,
Nursing Informatics course in the undergraduate curriculum was defined by the Commission on
Higher Education (CHED) Memorandum Order 5 Series of 2008. This was later revised and
included as Health Informatics course in CHED Memorandum Order 14 Series of 2009. This was
first implemented in the summer of 2010.
The Philippine nursing community have long sought to keep up with increasing use of
information and technology in the health care system. Nursing Informatics follows the footsteps
of biomedical informatics which has gained relative popularity earlier than its other allied
medical counterparts.
Organization
Some of the major milestones in nursing informatics history in the Philippines includes the
participation of the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) in the development of Standards for
Health Information in the Philippines (SHIP) in 1999, the formation of the Master of Science in
Health Informatics (MSHI) which began in 2005, and the formation of the Philippine Nursing
Informatics Association (PNIA) in 2010 as a sub-specialty organization of PNA for nursing
informatics.
Early in 2009, Mr. Kristian R. Sumabat and Ms. Mia Alcantara-Santiago, both nurses and
graduate students of Master of Science in Health Informatics at the University of the Philippines,
Manila began drafting plans to create a nursing informatics organization. In February 2010, they
began recruiting other nursing informatics specialists and practitioner to organize a group which
later became as the Philippine Nursing Informatics Association.
By the year 2003, a Master of Science in Health Informatics was proposed to be offered by UP-
Manila College of Medicine (major in medical informatics) and the College of Arts and Science
(major in bioinformatics) and was later approved to be offered starting academic year 2005-
2006.
In 1999, a study group was formed headed by the National Institute of Health of the University
of the Philippines Manila. This group identified international standards for health information
and their adaptability in the Philippines. The document is referred to as the "Standards of Health
Information in the Philippines, 1999 version" or "SHIP99". Representatives from various
sectorscollaborated on this project including the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) in
theperson of Ms. Evelyn Protacio.
Origin
Since 1998, several faculty members of the University of the Philippines began formal education
and training. Dr. Herman Tolentino took a post-doctoral fellowship in medical informatics at the
University of Washington. Dr. Alvin Marcelo followed a year later for his training at the National
Library of Medicine. Dr. Cito Maramba went to Coventry for his Masters in Information Sciences
at the University of Warwick. They were later followed by other physicians such as Dr. Micheal
Muin and Dr. Ryan Bañez.
References:
https://prezi.com/xkxh7ehdanb1/history-of-nursing-informatics-in-the-
philippines/#:~:text=Some%20of%20the%20major%20milestones,Health%20Informatics%20(MSHI)%20which%20began
https://www.coursehero.com/file/52482962/Philippinesdocx/