Introduction to Medical Informatics
Abstract
What is medical informatics? In the summer of 2004 I was invited to lecture at Dartmouth. Dr. Rosen, my host, asked me if I could address my interpretation of medical informatics during my lecture. This presentation made me review and reflect on some old and new concepts that have appeared in some cases in the literature. I have observed, for example, that the definition varies greatly depending on the profession of the person who answers this question. A few years earlier, while at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), I had the opportunity to participate in a lecture by Ted Shortliffe, in which he explained a model of medical informatics that appears in his book Handbook of Medical Informatics.* I also liked portions of the content that appears at the Vanderbilt University† website in its program of medical informatics (MI) and finally the work of Musen/Von Bemmel reflected on their Handbook of Medical Informatics.‡ Healthcare informatics has been defined by these authors, respectively as • “A field of study concerned with the broad range of issues in the management and use of biomedical information, including medical computing and the study of the nature of medical information itself.”§ • “The science that studies the use and processing of data, information, and knowledge applied to medicine, healthcare and public health.”¶ Vanderbilt’s MI program uses a “simplistic definition”: Computer applications in medical care and a “better definition”: Biomedical informatics is an emerging discipline that has been defined as the study, invention, and implementation of structures and algorithms to improve communication, understanding, 56.1 Convergence of Science and Technology with Medical Informatics .......................................................................56-2 56.2 Biomedical Informatics: An Evolving Perspective ....................56-3 56.3 New Issues of the Information Age ..............................................56-8 References ....................................................................................................56-9 and management of medical information. The end objective of biomedical informatics is the coalescing of data, knowledge, and the tools necessary to apply that data and knowledge in the decision-making process, at the time and place that a decision needs to be made. The focus on the structures and algorithms necessary to manipulate the information separates biomedical informatics from other medical disciplines where information content is the focus.