The Power of Information
Have you ever stood by a patient’s bed, head low in self-doubt
and disbelief because the person you were treating had an occult
underlying concomitant condition that you should have detected and
would have altered your course of treatment? Have you felt a high
sense of frustration upon learning that the child you just admitted
had been given an antibiotic which had previously caused her to
develop hives?
Many of us share similar experiences and a sense of helplessness
as we watch our patients become critically ill and even die because
we, they, or their families didn’t have the tools that would
have prevented these crises. In many cases, the critical tool is
information.
Information is a highly underrated and often overlooked medical
tool. It is a more than equal partner of the antibiotics, scalpels,
microscopes and X-rays used everyday to diagnose and treat illness.
However, the power of information is its precedence to the other
tools of medicine. We must know what we’re dealing with in
order to pick and use our other tools wisely to be good physicians.
Creating systems that allow medical information to be applied in
a meaningful way by those who treat and care for patients is the
common goal of those laboring in the medical information sciences.
Indiana University is fortunate to have among its faculty, pioneers
who have laid the groundwork for a field that is now considered
critical by both government and industry.
Among these is Clement McDonald, MD, Distinguished Professor of
Medicine, the Regenstrief Chair in Health Services Research and
the director of the Regenstrief Institute. Clem was just awarded
the Morris F. Collen Award of Excellence, presented to an individual
whose personal commitment and dedication to medical informatics
has made a lasting impression on the field. This is a prestigious
honor for a man who has accomplished much and will make more significant
contributions to his field in the many years ahead.
This fall, with the generosity of the City of Indianapolis, the
Indiana General Assembly, Eli Lilly and Company and its Foundation,
we began constructing a place that will allow many of our information
scientists to share common spaces. When the IU Medical Information
Sciences Building opens in 2006 (see the back cover), it will provide
work space for those who are studying new theories on protein behavior,
investigating methods of conducting biological research without
risking patient health or privacy, and devising systems that give
every patient and physician improved access to the patient’s
health information.
The new building will house people who are designing research studies
that are more accurate and insightful. And it will host experts
who help us parse through the many bioethical issues of life sciences
research and it applications.
Knowledge and information are power. They are limiting factors
to the quality of care we can provide our patients. The building
that will cluster the aforementioned expertise will allow the School
to be recognized as being at the forefront of this area of medical
care and research.
D. Craig Brater, MD
Dean and Walter J. Daly Professor
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