Welcome to our weekly clinical informatics practice question. We’ll be publishing this weekly, all the way up until the next clinical informatics exam so you can enter your exam confident and prepared.
This week’s question deals with the topic of the definition of informatics. This topic may seem simple, even boring if you’ve been in the field for a long time, but don’t be surprised if its one of the first questions you see on the exam.
Let’s get on to the question. The answer is at the bottom of the explanation section. Try not to peak!
Q: The primary difference between clinical and biomedical informatics is:
1. Clinical Informatics is the application of informatics and information technology to deliver health care services while biomedical informatics is the development of storage, analytic, and interpretive methods to optimize the transformation of increasingly voluminous biomedical data, and genomic data, into proactive, predictive, preventive, and participatory health.
2. Clinical Informatics is the application of informatics and information technology to deliver health care services while biomedical informatics studies and pursues the effective use of data, information, problem solving and decision making to improve human health.
3. Clinical Informatics focuses on data, information, problem solving and decision making while biomedical informatics’ primary aim is to improve human health.
4. Clinical Informatics involves the use of informatics in the discovery and management of new knowledge relating to health and disease while biomedical informatics studies and pursues the effective use of data, information, problem solving and decision making to improve human health.
Answer & Explanation
[Answer 1] This answer accurately describes clinical informatics, but its definition of biomedical informatics actually describes translational bioinformatics.
[Answer 2] This is an accurate description of biomedical informatics and clinical informatics.
[Answer 3] Biomedical informatics aims to improve human health and focuses on biomedical data, information, problem solving and decision making.
[Answer 4] The use of informatics in the discovery and management of new knowledge better describes clinical research informatics, not clinical informatics.
The correct answer to this question is answer 2.
References
You can find more information regarding the different types of informatics on the AMIA website.
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