Health Informatics 2.0

Professor Martin-Sanchez is also working on establishing a new Centre for Health and Biomedical Informatics Research at the University.

To the uninitiated, Informatics is the discipline focused on the acquisition, storage, analysis and use of information in a specific setting or domain. In the case of Health and Biomedical Informatics, this pertains to information on diseases and symptoms, patient data and clinical care and research.

As our understanding of the human body, diseases and science in general becomes increasingly complex, the need for a sophisticated and thorough health informatics approach is paramount.

“The expectation of knowing everything about a field is becoming out of the scope of a human brain. That’s why the contribution of health informaticians to knowledge management is so vital to the field of medicine,” Professor Martin-Sanchez says.

Social media and networks are proving to be the new frontier for health informatics. These sites have meant that a group of people – who all suffer from diabetes, for example – can connect online and share observations about which drugs or life habits are harmful or good for them. This is just one of the many informatics-related changes to the way clinicians deal with patients.

“This is an example of how the Internet enables patient information to further our understanding of optimal treatment for specific diseases or conditions,” he says.

There have already been several journal papers published using this kind of research. Extending these advances in information gathering, including personal genomes and data from body and environmental sensors, will greatly benefit from ultra high-speed broadband networks and open new avenues for biomedical research to advance into a more precise, preventative and personalised medicine

A multi-disciplinary approach will underscore the mission of the proposed Centre for Health and Biomedical Informatics, and Professor Martin-Sanchez’s approach in general. The Centre will be based in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences and will work closely with the University’s Institute for a Broadband Enabled Society (IBES), the Melbourne School of Engineering and National ICT Australia Ltd which is Australia’s Information and Communications Technology Research Centre of Excellence.

Reflecting on the importance of cross disciplinary communication and expertise, Professor Martin-Sanchez says, “My main strength is that I can talk to a biological researcher, I can talk to an engineer, and of course I can talk to a physician or other health professional.

 “These disciplines usually work independently and separately, but the possibility of speaking the same language means that we can build a more holistic picture of the entire health industry.

 “I am convinced that the new and most exciting things in health are taking place in the boundaries of different scientific areas.”

Using the insights of different health disciplines, biomedical informatics can look at the human body and diseases as a continuum. “We can map health issues from the atomic level, to the molecule, to the cell, to the tissue to the organ, to the individual to the whole population.”

Professor Martin-Sanchez is a man of great faculties: in possession of two PhDs, and having been based not only in Spain and now Australia, he has also carried out research at the prestigious Emory University Hospital in the US.

The Centre for Health and Biomedical Informatics will be an important pillar in postgraduate studies, as it will offer education courses for health practitioners and researchers on the benefits of approaching the field with a strong background in information systems, and it will work to attract information technologists to work in this field. In fact, Professor Martin-Sanchez’s Unit will be offering a new postgraduate subject in eHealth and Biomedical Informatics Systems later in 2011.

Professor Martin-Sanchez also supports the idea to offer a major in informatics to undergraduate students completing a Bachelor of Bio-Medicine.

“Students studying Medicine and other areas of health care are often drawn to this career path as its very foundation is about helping people and curing disease. This idealism also rests at the Centre of Health and Biomedical Informatics, where the potential to help solve health issues will have a global scope.”

Rather than focusing on the microcosm of the microscope, biomedical informaticians can broaden students’ gazes to global phenomena and epidemics, and chart new understandings of the macrocosm of health.

Using informatics tools in hospitals has been shown to reduce the number of medical errors, and can also help to minimise some of the costs associated with the health system, to have important outcomes for the quality of patient care, improve access to care and trigger innovation

Contemplating his new context and project, Professor Martin-Sanchez reflects on the differences in academic cultures: “In Spain and other European countries, the areas of knowledge are more clearly separated. If you’re a biologist, you’re a biologist; if you’re a chemist then that’s what you’re limited to.

“Here, however, the system is much more flexible. Students at the University of Melbourne, for example, have an opportunity to be exposed to as many different things as possible and then from that breadth, can decide what they’d like to specialise in later.

“This kind of multi-disciplinary approach makes it easier for the University to implement a new approach to health care and biomedical research and create a really strong foundation for health informatics.”

Complementary to the structure and ethos of the University of Melbourne, the Centre for Health and Biomedical Informatics will allow for breadth and depth to co-exist in the field of medicine and health sciences.