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As a developing country, there is no specific workforce related to health informatics. Our country has a shortage of specialists in health informatics and are still replying on paperwork in healthcare administration. And as a result, patient’s data are not standardized and hard to retrieve and analyze for further benefits of the population. However, there are some international and private hospitals that have a small workforce related to health informatics. And we can see how efficient and accessible the patient’s data can be in those healthcare settings. But as a whole country, only a handful of hospitals have a small taskforce of health informaticians. There are some challenges that our country needs to overcome to have a workforce of skilled and trained health informatics in most of our healthcare settings.
The first hurdle we must overcome is the lack of understanding on the importance of health informatics in healthcare settings and among clinicians. Most doctors and other healthcare workers in my country do not understand how effective it is to provide quality care and treatment if their healthcare settings have a workforce of skilled health informatics. So, raising awareness by hosting webinars and seminars on the significance of having health informatics among healthcare workforces can be effective in tackling this challenge. The second hurdle is the cost of implementation. In my country, the ministry of health is one of the under-funded ministries, which leads to shortage in skilled healthcare providers and resources. Most of the time, the demand and the supply in our healthcare settings are severely imbalanced. So, implementing health informatics systems, technology infrastructure in healthcare settings, and training new recruits of health informatics can be expensive. So, the cost of implementing still serves as one of the major hurdles in having a workforce of skilled health informatics in my country.
The third hurdle is the gap in education and training programs in health informatics. As of this day, there is no dedicated program in my country that is designed to train new recruits for health informatics. The lack of such programs further distances us from having a workforce of skilled health informatics. So, our country should collaborate with other countries to develop the field of health informatics in our healthcare settings. To conclude, our country still needs to overcome the above-mentioned challenges to have a resolute workforce of health informaticians in our healthcare settings.