Notes

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) defines synchronous telemedicine as "live video-conferencing," which is a "two-way audiovisual link between a patient and a care provider.“ ONC defines asynchronous telemedicine as "store-and-forward video-conferencing," which is the "transmission of a recorded health history to a health practitioner, usually a specialist.“

The field of information management encompasses a large array of technological, managerial, and analytical processes. Organizations often produce a vast quantity of data yet have difficulty using it, because it is not in the form of usable information. It is sometimes said that “we are drowning in a sea of data, but starving for information.” Information management seeks to address that concern.

Healthcare organizations collect information from a wide variety of sources, including the following:
Medical records from all sources available
Demographic information about the patient
Treatment plans
Identification of the patient within the last provider organization
Details of the admitting/receiving clerk
Insurance/health plan information
Relevant appointments
Diagnoses
Allergies
Medication lists
Physician orders
Anticipated goals (care plan), including rehabilitation plans
Home health/hospice information
Follow-up notes and plans
Nursing details
Self-care status
Disabilities and impairments
Nutrition details
Therapist details
Social service details
Laboratory systems information
Imaging systems, or picture archiving and communication (PAC) systems
Human resource systems
Accounting systems
Financial management systems

Data collected from these sources are then organized, collated, and analyzed to produce usable information that can be applied in the healthcare setting or for administrative purposes. Organizations often use systems called data warehouses to manage this abundance of information. Data warehouses are not the same as databases. Whereas a database is “any collection of data organized for storage, accessibility, and retrieval,” a data warehouse is a specific type of database that “integrates copies of transaction data from disparate source systems and provisions them for analytical use.”