Monday, May 23, 2011

Introduction

Hi everyone! My name is Lauren Metcalfe and I am in my 3rd semester of the BS-DNP program for Family Nurse Practitioner and the University of Utah. I have worked in critical care as a bedside nurse and an organ donation coordinator for the past seven years, and have decided to change course and pursue a career in primary care. I especially love working with the older adult population and am also working on the Geriatric Interdisciplinary Program Graduate Certificate offered through the University.

Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, recently made the statement that we (collectively) now create as much information every two days as we did between the beginning of human civilization through 2003. The volume of health information alone being generated is enormous, and the inefficiencies resulting from an inability to process this data in a timely manner are staggering. If we truly hope to achieve evidence-based, patient-centered care, we must first learn how to harness the power of health information through technology. I see a natural connection between the professional goals of informaticists and DNPs- to speed up the translation of research into practice.  I am fascinated by the possibilities of a wide range of health information technologies- from electronic medical records to telemedicine to mobile health applications- and foresee these tools playing a major role in the future of health care. I hope to explore these technologies further this semester and in this blog.