Biomedical Informatics

Michael Jernigan

Biomedical informatics is broadly defined by the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) as the study of ‘effective organization, analysis, management, and use of information in health care’ (‘About Informatics,’ AMIA Web site). Although not requiring the inclusion of computers, the field has grown parallel to the explosive growth of the computer industry, and the two are often associated. Biomedical informatics deals with all aspects of information processing and communication toward a common goal of providing better health care. Its foundations stem from the intersection of computer science, clinical medicine, biomedical engineering, mathematics, and cognitive science. Most health care research today touches some aspect of biomedical informatics, typically through the use or creation of electronic databases, searching online resources, or management of electronic monitoring systems. This entry provides an overview of the history and scope of this field, current research techniques, and applications in both clinical medicine and epidemiology. The field ...

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