What is Biomedical and Health Informatics?

February, 2015

William Hersh, M.D.
Professor and Chair
Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology
Oregon Health & Science University
Email: hersh@ohsu.edu
Web: www.billhersh.info
Blog: informaticsprofessor.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/billhersh
Twitter: https://twitter.com/williamhersh

This page contains materials that answer a question I am frequently asked: What is Biomedical and Health Informatics? In addition to providing many links to key sites around the Web for biomedical and health informatics, this page also provides a voice-over-Powerpoint lecture (requiring Flash, HTML 5, or the Articulate iPad Player) that addresses the question from my perspective. The slides of the lecture are also provided in PDF handout format, with another PDF file of references cited. I also provide a list of recent textbooks, some links to some papers I have written, and links to important professional organizations for the field.

The lecture is divided into segments, and includes the following (with more to be added during 2015):

What is Biomedical and Health Informatics (1)? (24:08) - Lecture PDF of slides

What is Biomedical and Health Informatics (2)? (20:56) - Lecture PDF of slides
Resources for Field: Organizations, Information, Education (30:27) - Lecture PDF of slides

All of the references and Web site links from the slides are in an additional PDF of references and Web site links.

There are a number of books written about the field as a whole and various aspects of it. Some major books include:

Shortliffe, EH and Cimino, JJ, Eds. (2014). Biomedical Informatics: Computer Applications in Health Care and Biomedicine (Fourth Edition). London, England, Springer.
Hoyt, RE and Yoshihashi, A, Eds. (2014). Health Informatics: Practical Guide for Healthcare and Information Technology Professionals, Sixth Edition. Pensacola, FL, Lulu.com.
Weaver, C., Delaney, C., et al., eds. (2010). Nursing and Informatics for the 21st Century - An International Look at Practice, Education, and EHR Trends, Second Edition. Chicago, IL. Healthcare Information Management Systems Society.
Hersh, W. (2009). Information Retrieval: A Health and Biomedical Perspective (Third Edition). New York. Springer-Verlag.
Berner, E, Ed. (2014). Informatics Education in Healthcare: Lessons Learned. London, England, Springer.

There are also a number of publications I have written that address aspects of the field:

Hersh, W (2009). A stimulus to define informatics and health information technology. BMC Medical Informatics & Decision Making, 9:24.
Hersh, W (2010). The health information technology workforce: estimations of demands and a framework for requirements. Applied Clinical Informatics. 1: 197-212.

In addition, there are a number of professional organizations concerned with biomedical and health informatics :

American Medical Informatics Association - www.amia.org
Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT - www.healthit.gov
National Library of Medicine - www.nlm.nih.gov
Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research - www.ahrq.gov
International Medical Informatics Association - www.imia.org
Healthcare Information Management Systems Society - www.himss.org
Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems - www.amdis.org
American Health Information Management Association - www.ahima.org
Medical Library Association - www.mlanet.org

How does one obtain more information about education in biomedical and health informatics?

A list of educational programs at http://www.amia.org/education/programs-and-courses
A list of training programs funded by the National Library of Medicine is at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ep/GrantTrainInstitute.html
Information about our program at Oregon Health & Science University at http://www.ohsu.edu/informatics-education
My blog on the topic, the Informatics Professor, at informaticsprofessor.blogspot.com

Last updated - February 7, 2015