Informatica Biomedica

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J Biomed Inform. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 February 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Biomed Inform. 2010 February ; 43(1): 104. doi:10.1016/j.jbi.2009.08.006.

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What is biomedical informatics?
Elmer V. Bernstam, MD, MSE1,2, Jack W. Smith, MD, PhD1, and ToddR. Johnson, PhD1 1School of Health Information Sciences, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX
2Division

of General Internal Medicine, Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX

Abstract
Biomedical informatics lacks a clear and theoretically grounded definition. Many proposed definitions focus on data, information,and knowledge, but do not provide an adequate definition of these terms. Leveraging insights from the philosophy of information, we define informatics as the science of information, where information is data plus meaning. Biomedical informatics is the science of information as applied to or studied in the context of biomedicine. Defining the object of study of informatics as data plus meaningclearly distinguishes the field from related fields, such as computer science, statistics and biomedicine, which have different objects of study. The emphasis on data plus meaning also suggests that biomedical informatics problems tend to be difficult when they deal with concepts that are hard to capture using formal, computational definitions. In other words, problems where meaning must be consideredare more difficult than problems where manipulating data without regard for meaning is sufficient. Furthermore, the definition implies that informatics research, teaching, and service should focus on biomedical information as data plus meaning rather than only computer applications in biomedicine.

Keywords biomedical informatics; scientific discipline; data; information; knowledge; definition;philosophy of information

Introduction
Biomedical informatics has been an “emerging field” for decades. Concern about medical information and the desire to computerize health care are hardly new. Though originally focused on traditional paper-based medical records and their management rather than electronic medical records, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) wasfounded in 1928 as the American Association of Medical Record Librarians[1]. Papers about medical reasoning were published in the 1950’s [2]. Kaiser Permanente established a department of medical methods research in September of 1961; one of its goals was to “begin to use computers in the practice of medicine” [3]. In 1962, they obtained their first federal

© 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rightsreserved. Corresponding author: Elmer Bernstam, MD, School of Health Information Sciences, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 7000 Fannin Street, Suite 600, Houston, TX 77030; Phone: 713 500 3901, Fax: 713 500 3929, Elmer.V.Bernstam@uth.tmc.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customerswe are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

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grantsto automate and improve screening methods [4]. Recent developments have thrust informatics into the national spotlight as part of a massive economic stimulus package known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Yet there is still no universally accepted definition of medical, health, bio- or biomedical informatics. Often, any activity that relates to computing is labeled “informatics”...