Module 1 Discussion Questions - Assignment Example

Module Discussion Questions Module DQ 1. Membership For the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), one can apply for membership through various categories. The categories include association or member societies, corporate institutional, academic institutional and correspondent memberships. However, before becoming a member, an applicant has to pay an annual fee. The corporate institutional and academic institutional memberships cost $2300 and $550 per annum respectively. For association or member societies, the exact amount is determined, based on World Health Organization’s assessment scale.

The membership fees are payable on a calendar year basis. Corresponding and observing members are not levied any fees. The membership for AMIA has been categorized as regular, student, trial, retired, corporate, and affiliates memberships. The membership fee for each category is $300, $40, $150, $75, and $450 per annum respectively. Each of these categories attracts unique benefits. For American Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), membership for half-day members is $935 per annum. Likewise, pre-symposium members have to pay 1,035 members and student members, $1,085, annually.

For the Nursing Informatics Working Groups (NIWG), each membership category has a specific membership fee. For instance, publishing members pay $2,000 so as to make their articles available on NIWG website. 2. What the site has to offerThe International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) website offers a wide range of medical information, information about itself and its affiliates, its publications, and information on upcoming or latest developments. The website has also a portal designed to help members login to their accounts or for newcomers to open new accounts (IMIA, 2012)The American Medical Informatics Association’s website, on the other hand, contains information that relates to government affairs, healthcare industrial development, and general news items that are pertinent to AMIA.

Healthcare educational programs and career information are other resources one can find on the website (AMIA, 2012). The Nursing Informatics Working Groups (NIWG) has information about itself, given that it is an organization that seeks to integrate nursing, information and knowledge on nursing and management information for the promotion of global and public health. Publications, summits, career guidance, nursing educational facilities and centers are some of the pieves of information that one finds on NIWG website (AMIA-NIWG, 2009).3. Comparing the three WebsitesBoth IMIA and NIWG offer great discounts to their members.

For instance, while full members pay dollar rates of $465 only, non-members have to part with $490. The same value stretches over to cover students. While student non-members pay $495, student non-members pay $595 for the year 2012. 4. Certification RequirementsAll the three organizations have a board of directors who evaluate each organization’s overall objectives and strategic plans. Therefore, certification is issued depending on conformance to these objectives and strategic plan. In both IMIA and IMIA-NIWG, only a single Member Society can be admitted from every country.

It is the Member Society that appoints one IMIA or IMIA-NIWG representative. Each Member Society, upon having shouldered the responsibility of membership fee, may take custody over certification issues. Module 1 DQ 2Key Components That Have Shaped Informatics in the Last Few YearsIn the last fifteen years, there has been a significant advance in IT which has shaped informatics. There has been sophisticated and robust software development, especially in databases, software architectures, messaging, mobile and web technologies.

Most importantly, over this period, significant development in hardware, including development of high-speed processors and development of computer with very large memory and storage space, improved network infrastructure that has been an enabling factor in facilitating secure and first data interchange (Shortliffe, 2011). These important milestones in software development, hardware, and information technology have potentially improved information analysis, access, sharing, and review. It is worth noting that the tremendous and enormous development, especially of the internet, in terms of connectivity, availability and accessibility, has also helped shape the field of informatics.

Consequently, significant advancements in decision support technologies, imaging technology, and information systems have facilitated the development of informatics.As a result of the rapid development and growth in informatics, inconsistencies, repetition, contradictions and conflicts in data stored by different informatics organization within a given field, e.g. the medical field, the need for harmonization of data and ensuring sanity became apparent. This has seen various mergers and acquisitions occur, for instance, the merger of three organizations, the AAMSI, SCAMC and ACMI to form AMIA.

Additionally, the exponential expansion of informatics necessitated a heightened control through strict rule and regulations (Shortliffe, 2011). These regulations were essential to safeguard the integrity and streamline the health sector.ReferencesAMIA. (2012). Membership Categories. American Medical Informatics Association. Retrieved October 7, 2012 from: http://www.amia.org/about-amia/membership-categoriesAMIA-NIWG. (2009, February 20). Amia-membership. American Medical Informatics Association.

Retrieved October 7, 2012 from: http://www.amia.org/programs/working-groups/nursing-informaticsIMIA. (2012, February 8). IMIA Members. International Medical Informatics Association. Retrieved October 7, 2012 from: http://www.imia-medinfo.org/new2/node/13Shortliffe, E. H. (2011, May 2). Computer Science and Its Relationship With AMIA and Informatics. American Medical Informatics Association. Retrieved October 7, 2012 from: http://www.amia.org/issues/computer-science-and-its-relationship-amia-and-informatics