As it is Pi Day 2023, I like to dedicate this post to relate to the use of pi in Health Information Management(HIM).
We all first met the pi in elementary geometry at school and it occurs in one of the first equations that you can solve; that is to find the circumference or areas of circles.
We remember that Pi (π) is a mathematical constant that represents the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, approximately equal to 3.14159—when for pi, you substitute the fraction 22/7. Although it is a simple ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, the decimal places appear to go on forever.
Pi is used extensively in mathematics and science, and its calculation has applications in various fields in healthcare too, including HIM.
For this post, I can think of three applications of pi, when pi is integral to HIM.
While the electronic medical record (EMR) is the core informational system for patient management across the healthcare system, the radiology information system (RIS) is considered the core system for the electronic management of imaging departments.
The RIS is the first example I can think of from my past inter-professional collaboration in a hospital setting, that pi is related in one way to HIM, i.e. through its use in medical imaging.
Medical imaging technologies, such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), use pi in their calculations to generate accurate images of the human body. The measurements of these images are based on the circumference and diameter of the scanned area, and pi is used to calculate these measurements accurately.
In addition to the RIS, pi is used in the calculation of various health-related metrics, such as body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure.
Obesity is a common problem worldwide that independently confers risk for chronic disease and early mortality.
HIM professionals use the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes as a tool for medical diagnoses, to medically code obesity, and also to identify obesity documentation in the electronic medical records(EMR) problem list.
Other available sources in the EMR use an individual’s body mass index (BMI) to identify and categorise obesity into the Z codes of ICD-10.
The ability to identify and manage the care of patients who meet the criteria for obesity in ambulatory settings has significantly improved with the increased use of health information technology, especially with the use of EMRs.
It is here in the EMR, that It is worthy to take note of the humble pie in the calculation of BMI involves dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by the square of their height in meters, which involves the use of pi in the calculation of the area of a circle (since the formula for the area of a circle is A = πr^2).
As HIM professionals involved in research, we surely used pi in statistical analysis and modeling in HIM.
For example, pi is used in the calculation of confidence intervals, which are used to estimate the range of values within which a population parameter (such as a mean or proportion) is likely to fall. This is important in HIM, as it allows researchers and analysts to make inferences about the health of a population based on a sample of data.
In summary, pi is used in various ways in HIM, including medical imaging, the calculation of health-related metrics, and statistical analysis and modeling.
Its precise calculation and properties make it a valuable tool in the field of HIM.
