There are over 33 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS. Over 25 million have died from the disease since it was discovered in the late 80’s. in 1995, HIV/AIDS was the number one killer of U.S. citizens ages 25-44.

HIV/AIDS is devastating people throughout the world. Since the beginning of the epidemic, 14.8 million children have lost at least one parent to HIV/AIDS. 22.5 million people are living with HIV/AIDS in Africa alone. HIV/AIDS is generally spread through sexual contact, but can also be transmitted through IV drug use, mother to baby, and through blood transfusions.

HIV/AIDS is a retro virus that, when exposed to a host, infiltrates the host DNA and becomes a permanent part of every one of their cells. HIV/AIDS affects people by destroying their T-Cells, or white blood cells, thus limiting their immune system. With a limited immune response, HIV/AIDS patients can die from something as simple as the common cold.

I have never been directly affected by AIDS. I don’t know anyone with AIDS. What I do have is a deep compassion for people. AIDS is a devastating disease that cripples a person’s ability to live a full life. Through a lot of funding and research, people living with HIV/AIDS have a hope for living normal life.

I have created a webliography of resource that when used together, provide a thorough survey of HIV/AIDS information. All of the websites are trusted. They are either non for prophet organizations or government run web pages. A worldwide survey of HIV/AIDS information can be attained by using the links below.

National Center for Biotechnology Information

U.S. National Library of Medicine

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001620/

This is a great web page created by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine. It gives a great synopsis on the disease including causes, symptoms, tests, treatment, complications etc.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

http://aids.gov/

This web site, created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is strictly dedicated to all information related to AIDS. It has great federal resources related to global AIDS, AIDS politics, and conferences. This is a very comprehensive website.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/

This website, updated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is essential for gathering statistical information about HIV/AIDS. It also provides information on the most up to date AIDS information through the CDC.

MedlinePlus

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/hivaids.html

MedlinePlus is a healthcare directory that has comprehensive information and resources on HIV/AIDS issues.

Avert

http://www.avert.org/

Avert claims to be to the most popular AIDS website in the world. This is a great resource for worldwide AIDS research. It provides statistics, charity projects, help and advice and so on.

Mayo Clinic

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hiv-aids/DS00005

The Mayo clinic is a basic and trusted web directory for any healthcare topic. It provides a very general overview of diseases and drugs.

Who's EHR is this?

Who owns the EHR? Lets think of that on the level of this question. Who owns the internet? Everyone and no one answers both questions. Government. Yes! They mandated the EHR, and they pass legislation that directs it. They have a large portion of the control over the EHR. The health system. The health system has the hands-on control of the HER. They manage it and utilize it in the most acute sense. The patient. Without patients, there would be no EHR. All of the information in the EHR is private information about the patient. The insurance company. ***Cue mini rant*** If we really think about it, the insurance companies have all of the money, and thus are doing whatever they want to do. If they wanted to claim the EHR, for all intensive purposes, it is theirs to claim. ***end mini rant*** Insurance companies use the EHR as much as the healthcare systems to make the “best” decisions for patients. How was that for skirting around the answer to the question!!!

Week 1

Informatics. Health care informatics. Information. Information sharing. Healthcare informatics is information sharing. From our first week in class, I have drawn the conclusion that there are two spectrums of healthcare that mesh to cohesively treat a patient. On one end of the spectrum, we DO a lot of things for our patients. We PASS medications, we DO interventions, we PERFORM surgeries etc. This end of the spectrum is completely dependent on what the other end of the spectrum holds and vice-versa. The other end of the spectrum is information based, or informatics. Here, health care professionals gather as much data as possible (which is useless by itself) and converts it into useful outputs aka information. This is where the ends of the spectrum merge. Without being able to DO things, we would have no direction to our information gathering. On the other hand, without information, we would not know what to DO.

Health care is always improving on what they can DO. Brain tumor? We can now DO surgery to remove it. Great! What good is it to be able to do something, but not know when to do it? Just as we are rapidly increasing our doability in healthcare, we have to likewise increase our knowability. Enter informatics. At its simplest form, informatics takes a vast ocean of information, can pool it, and reduce it down into a few very potent drops of information. The faster and more efficiently that this information makes this transformation, the better. That is what this semester of informatics will be about… I think.