INFORMATICS

Informatics 
A broad academic field encompassing human-computer  interaction, information science, information
technology, algorithm, & social science.
Computer science - study of complex system, information & computation using applied mathematics, electrical engineering & software engineering.
Information technology - study of processing, management, &retrieval of information.
Health informatics - a discipline @ the intersection of information science & health care.

                                            - deals with the resources, devices, & methods required to optimize the

                                             acquisition, storage, retrieval, & use of information in health & bio-medicine.

                                            - include not only computers but  also clinical guidelines.

Clinical guidlines - a document with the aim of guiding decision & criteria regarding dx, management, and treatment in specific areas of health care.

OVERVIEW OF COMPUTERS AND NURSING

          In the past 25years, NI specialists emerged as a new specialty by the ANA.

          In the 1981, there were approximately 15 nurses who identified this new specialty as

               their area of expertise.

          In the 1990, number increased by another 500%.

          By 2000, it increased by another 500%.

          Its anticipated that every health-care setting will employ at least one NI specialist &

               will implement some type of CIS.

  

COMPUTER SYSTEM

 Computer Hardware - are all the physical component of the machine.

• Basic hardware of a computer:

            Electronic circuits

            Microchips

            Processors

            Motherboard

• Peripheral hardware:

             Keyboard

             Mouse

             Printer

             Fax

             Hard drive

             Universal Serial Bus drive(USB)

             Floppy drives

COMPUTER HARDWARE FUNDAMENTALS

• Mother Board 

- thin flat sheet made of firm, nonconducting material on which the internal components are mounted.

• Central Processing Unit(CPU)

- "brains of the computer"

- has a control unit, logic unit & memory.

- the control unit carries out the machine language function.

- the arithmetic & logic unit control the mathematical function.

- the memory consists of registers, RAM & the main storage area in which the computer places programs & data as it is working on.

MEMORY

• Read Only Memory(ROM)

- a form of permanent storage.

- can only be read by the computer.

- cannot be erased.

- generally contains programs called Firmware, to oversee computer function.

•  Random Access Memory(RAM)

- used as temporary storage.

- can be accessed, used, changed, & written repeatedly.

- contains data & instruction that are stored & processed by computer programs called application programs.

 INPUT & OUTPUT DEVICES 

• Input Devices

               - allows the computer to receive the information from the outside world.
               - some are used for security purposes.
Ex. Keyboard, mouse, touch screen, light pen, voice scanner & electrodes(used as an input device in health care computers for physiologic monitoring)

• Output Devices

               - allows computer to report its result to the external world.
               - output can be in a form of text, data files, sounds, graphics or
               signals of other devices.
Ex. Monitor, Speaker, Printer




Storage Media
               - includes main memory but also external devices on which programs & data are stored.

•  Hard Drive

                - a peripheral that has very high speed (storing and retrieving data) and high density (high storage capacity).

• Diskettes

                - allows input and output, is a round magnetic disk encased in a flexible or rigid case.

• CD-ROM

                - a rigid disk that holds a much higher density than a diskette and has a much higher speed.
          In 1990, this is only an input device.
          In 1990>, users can write on CD know as CD-RW.

• USB disk

               - a form of a small, removable hard drive that is inserted into the USB port of a computer.
               - can store more data compared to floppy disk and CD-RW.
Other output devices:

1. Zip  Drive - has higher capacity than floppy disk (100mb).
2. Jaz Drive - contains a size of 1 gigabytes.
   

Computer Power

•  Bits and Bytes

               - refers to how a machine stores information at the lowest or "closest to machine registers and memory" level.

               - computer don't process information as words or numbers.

               - 1byte = 8bits

• Binary system (0 and 1)

               - represents numeric values using two symbols, 0 & 1. More specifically, the usual base-2 system is a positional notation with a radix of two. Owing to it's straightforward implementation in digital electronic circuitry using logic gates, the biary system is used internally by all modern computers.

Computer Speed

     - basic operation of a CPU are called Cycle (fetch, decode, execute, store cycles).

     - CPU speed is measured in cycles per second which are called the CLOCK SPEED.

               1,000,000cycle/s = 1mhz

Types of Computers

• Supercomputers

               - a computational-oriented computer designed for scientific application requiring gigantic amount of calculation.

               - found in areas such as defense and weaponry, weather forecasting and scientific research.

• Mainframes
  

               - fastest, largest, and most expensive type of computer used in corporation for processing, storing and retrieving data.

               - capable of processing (BIPS) and accessing billions of characters of data.

               - can serve hundreds of users at the same time.

• Microcomputer (Personal Computer)
  

               - ex. desktop computer.

• Handheld computer

               -  small, special function computer.
               - limited in their expansion possibilities, ability to serve a full participants in the office network and peripherals they can support.
          ex. PDA (personal data assistant), notebook.


 Classes of Computers

• Analog Computer

                - operates in a continuous physical or electrical magnitudes, measuring ongoing continuous analog quantities such as voltage, current, temperature & pressure.
          Ex. heart monitors & fetal monitors.

• Digital Computer

               -  operates on discrete discontinuous numerical digits using the binary numbering system.
               - data are represented by numbers, letters and symbols rather than wave form(analog).

• Hybrid Computer

               - contains both analog and digital computer.
               - used for specific application such as complex signal processing and other engineering oriented application.
          Ex. physiologic monitoring that are able to capture heart waveform and also to measure the core body temperature.

Common Hardware Peripherals

• Keyboard
• Monitor
• Mouse and trackball
• Floppy disks/diskettes & CD-ROMS
• Touch pads & mouse buttons
• Light pen/touchscreen
• Optical character recognition
• Magnetic-ink character recognition
• voice synthesizer
• Imaging
• Digital versatile disk
• Printers
• Modem