Techonology and Decision Making Paper Hcs 482 - 2536 Words

Running head: TECHNOLOGY AND DECISION MAKING Technology and Decision Making University of Phoenix Healthcare Informatics HCS/482 Richard Ong November 15, 2008 Technology and Decision Making Technology, decision-making processes, and data accessibility have changed dramatically in recent years. This paper will discuss systems and informatics theories. The paper will confer on the Data, Information, and Knowledge (DIK) Model. The role of expert system in nursing care and medicine will be provided. Decision aids and decision support systems are used everyday providing focus, leadership and direction within technology and will be examined. The use of technology for patient and client management will be explored. An analysis of the†¦show more content†¦1). Decision making by healthcare professionals is based on the assimilation of data, information and knowledge to support patient care. Organizing data, information and knowledge for the processing by computers is accomplished through the use of information technology and information structures (Newbold, 2008). The first level is data which â€Å"†¦are recorded (captured and stored) symbols and signal reading s† (Liew, 2007, Definitions). Data is bits of information though to just have data is not meaningful to decision making. The second level is information which is organized, interpreted and communicated data between machines or humans. â€Å"Characteristics of quality information are: complete and clear in its descriptions, accurate, measurable, preferably by measurable objective means such as numbers, variable by independent observers, promptly entered, rapidly and easily available when needed, objective, rather than subjective, comprehensive, including all necessary information, appropriate to each user’s needs, clear and unambiguous, reliable, easy and convenient form to interpret, classify, store, retrieve and update† (Theoretical issues, 1998, Concepts). Knowledge is the third level of the model and is the collection of information that is obtained from several sources to produce a concept used to achieve a basis for logical decision-making. The information needs to be