Medical Informatics...

One of the biggie questions I oft get is ... "what do you do for a living?" I would then reply, "I work in the HealthCare Industry". Now here's comes the tricky bit.. if it's and aunty or uncle, their first impression is... orrr ... "so you are Missy larr?" .. which does in a way.. pisses me off abit as though every young woman who works in health care HAS GOT to be a NURSE!!.. After a silent sigh... I would reply.. no ... "lohkun la... lohkun"... which then brings up the next question... "which hospital arr?" another silent sigh... and I answer.. at S%&*$h%&*@h HQ.

Now, the HealthCare Industry is HUGE.. and not everyone in it works as a doctor or a nurse per se. Medical Informatics is quite a new field (especially in Singapore) but has its roots deep in the great US of A. It's not that well known yet, as we're still a small group in this tiny island, but we are.. a growing group (hopefully!). It mainly involves ... (take a deep breath) the integration of IT systems into doctor's workflow to "assist" them and finally ensuring patient's safety. It's basically building a bridge btw docs and IT peeps . Still clueless?.. here goes an example:

To doctors... UFEME means Urine FEME...
To IT folks UFEME sounds the same as FEME, fluid.. (which in a way makes sense...)

But in reality... they are not the same as both are completely different tests.

So there's where informaticians come in : to explain to the IT folks doctor's language ...

Another more impt work we do is to figure out doctor's workflow itself. Strangely, nobody really governs the way a ward or clinic works. Somehow, just put a nurse, a clerk, a doctor and the ancillaries together, and voila.. you have a working ward/clinic. Things just runs on its own, without much fuss as ultimately, everyone works to ensure the patient's health is taken care of. But when informatics come in place.. we're detailing down, if possible every single workflow there is.. and when we add in new IT stuff.. every single thing that can go wrong. It may seem like an easy thing to do..but when you really get down to it.. it just feels very "holey" and closing down each holes only reveals new ones... like how my colleagues put it.. it feels like all the holes in a block of cheese is coming together... hehehe...

Hmm.. what else is there in Informatics?...hmm.. well.. in my short time of May to Oct so far.. tt's about an accurate description of my job that I can give. The job is quite OK, with new discoveries along the way (like learning how a cavernosogram is done) and learning that IT folks do think very very differently from doctors... :) I kinda like my job so far.. but we'll see how it goes in the future when the projects take off... ;)

So for all out there who are interested in it.. give it a go... You might like it... you might not.. but its a fun experience learning what happens behind the behind the scenes.. and have a good time too as it is really fun to see how sth you help build take place. There are the good times, there are the bad times.. but I'm sure everybody have already been through that..

:) till the next time

trudge on, dear friends.. and never be afraid to try sth new..