1970's:
- Informatics was coined in the 1970’s from the French term informatique in reference to advancing computer technology (Saba, 2001). The "informatics movement" was felt throughout all disciplines of health care both nationally and internationally (Saba, 2001, p. 178).
- Nursing stations were studied and identified to be central to patient care and deemed fundamental in the creation of health information systems (HIS) (Saba, 2001). The adoption of some of the first HIS and Electronic Medical Records (EMR) occurred in the 1970's (Thede, 2012).
- By 1974 the first nursing informatics papers were presented at the Medical Informatics Conference in Sweden (Saba, 2001). Five papers were presented on a variety of topics including: general description of informatics impact, computer education of health care workers, the design of nursing care protocols for hospital information systems (HIS), advancing real-time cardiac monitors, and computerized medication systems (Saba, 2001).
- In the early 1970's, workshops were being offered on how to use computer systems in home care (Saba, 2001). In the US, computers were used to calculate the cost of home care visit (Saba, 2001).
- Canadian Organization for the Advancement of Computers in Health (COACH) was found in 1975 (Kaminski, 2011). COACH works to develop professional guidelines for utilizing computers in health care (Kaminski, 2011).