Future Care Medical Informatics: The woman who trust the doctors
Silke Haferkamp
No hospital series on TV should miss: the whiteboard in front of the operating room - the blackboard showing who operates whom and when. This is the place where the big and small dramas play in a hospital, where life-saving decisions are made and with a peppy wiping the entire schedule can be erased? the most exciting place of a clinic. Nevertheless, Silke Haferkamp wants to banish exactly this whiteboard from German hospitals. The medical computer scientist is IT group leader at the University Hospital Aachen and among other things responsible that medical data of all kinds will no longer be stored on paper or tablets, but centrally in a digital hospital information system (short: KIS). Every single step that used to be scribbled on the medical record by hand? from anesthesia to transport to the recovery room? is today by doctors with the appropriate time in the of Medicine Computer Scientist programmed computer system entered. This processes the data and calculates which operation takes how long and where dates are moving.
"It used to be done with a sponge and pen on the whiteboard, completely decentralized, and today there is an OR manager who manages the data and constantly updates the OR plan. This allows for better planning and time savings for all, "says Silke Haferkamp, who knows what that means for doctors and nurses: the 40-year-old worked for several years as an anesthesiologist before moving to IT." Especially as an anesthesiologist I have a lot of efficient surgical planning: The doctors work faster, and I can go home in the evening, "she explains the benefits of a functioning HIS.
The regular working hours were also a reason why the Aachen doctor changed shortly before completing her specialist training in medical computer science. But by no means the only one: "I've always had a penchant for computer science, and during my studies I even programmed a network game with my boyfriend, and I've always loved analyzing problems and expressing them logically." The profession of She now gives her the opportunity to combine her analytical skills with her clinical experience. Silke Haferkamp knows the processes in the hospital, she knows how doctors work, which data must be stored and accessible to whom. The fact that she would be the one who thinks about how the information is processed rather than entering it herself came rather by accident. "During my residency I was in the ICU one day talking to people from IT and they told me a bit about their work and said, 'Someone from anesthesia who knows the procedures well, we could do well use.' "
Silke Haferkamp did not think long and took one and a half years off to complete the additional training to become a medical informatics specialist. She studied various statistical procedures, got to know medical administration systems and ways to process patient data. But she did not want to give up her medical career. With the additional title of medical informatics she returned to the clinic to make her specialist. But computer science did not let her go.
Half a year before her specialist exam, the information system of the University Hospital Aachen was changed and expanded? and a project manager looking for the introduction of the new system. This time, Silke Haferkamp dared to take the final step from the operating room to an office with two screens. She has not regretted it to this day: "As an anesthesiologist you are a service provider. Surely you can do great anesthetics, but basically it's about making the surgeons happy." I always felt very strange, as an IT group leader I can at least Go to the bathroom when I want, I can divide my own time. "
As a mother of two children at the age of four and six years, she finds it very convenient at the moment. After the birth of her second child, she reduced her working time to 30 hours a week. She kept her leadership position anyway. She manages a team of 20 people, half of them women, and supervises all patient-oriented systems of the Aachen University. She was instrumental in their development, speaking of them as their "baby". With the aid of these systems, it is possible to see centrally at the computer what appointments a single patient has within the clinic. "If a patient needs an ECG, an ultrasound, and an exam, these appointments can be scheduled very efficiently with the central information system - each employee sees when the patient needs to be where. In this way, the appointments can be set so that the patient has to wait as little as possible. Unfortunately, this is not being used optimally in most clinics, "says Silke Haferkamp.
Even if the KIS is supposed to reduce bureaucracy and avoid stacks of files, not all doctors are enthusiastic about the changeover. "It takes more time to enter information into the system than to write by hand, and of course, depending on the technology, it does not work and the entire clinic operation collapses," admits Silke Haferkamp. However, she is still convinced of the success of the medical information systems: The medical file is centrally available, the information is stored permanently, costs can be calculated more clearly at the click of a mouse. Also in the treatment of patients, the medical informatics has proven itself: Only with their help, for example, 3D ultrasound images and the size calculation of tumors and cells are possible.
Silke Haferkamp always benefited from her new job as a doctor: "I know the smell of the stable - if IT does not work as it should, and the doctors ask me upset: 'Do you really know what we do then I can say: 'Yes, I was an anesthesiologist myself, I worked as an emergency doctor.' I'll have another standing right now. "
Silke Haferkamp sometimes misses her exciting shifts as an emergency doctor, and today she earns less than she would get as an active doctor. "Even the social prestige as a medical informatics is lower," she says. "But I work much more self-determined for that now."
Much of her time now spends her time in meetings? with doctors, software manufacturers, at specialist conferences. She continues to enthuse about the challenge of developing a logical system with her mixed knowledge of computer science and medicine, which meets the needs of the clinic's processes. And even if the whiteboard before the operation should disappear forever through their work? Would not a series on medical informatics be a good alternative?
What do medical informatics actually do? They form the interface between physicians and programmers and ensure that all important data in a hospital is stored in specially programmed information systems and processed correctly. 3D ultrasound images, the surface calculation of tumors and the most efficient surgical plan? Medical Informatics bring with them the technical know-how to improve and support hospital processes.
How to become a medical informatics? There are three different educational pathways: Some universities in Germany, such as the University of Heidelberg, offer a bachelor's and master's degree in medical informatics, with a standard duration of ten semesters. Computer science students can take medicine as a minor subject. Amongst other things, they attend courses in anatomy and physiology, and in this way gain additional training as a medical informatics specialist. Physicians can take a two-year additional training in computer science while working to be able to work later as a medical informatics specialist. Further education centers are available on the website of the German Society for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde is a partner of the action MINT (Maths, Informatics, Science, Technology) At ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com we present you in a loose order women who work in this field.
