About
Medical informatics is an exciting field – as technology expands and changes rapidly, so does the practice of informatics. A popular definition by Edward Shortliffe defines medical informatics as the rapidly developing scientific field that deals with the storage, retrieval, and optimal use of biomedical information, data, and knowledge for problem solving and decision making.
Broadly speaking, then, X informatics is the application of technology to X (where bioinformatics would be the application of technology to biology, medical informatics the application of technology to medicine, and so on). Understandably, this allows a huge range of possibilities for the field! The possibilities for the application of technology for understanding data and making decisions in medicine is infinite and complex.
All of our lives are touched by medicine and technology, but few of us understand just how many ways the two can help us. This web site aims to demystify this increasingly important area by highlighting interesting developments, farfetched possibilities, day-to-day practice, policy decisions, and other corners of the field. Because informatics is such a large discipline, we expect to cover a wide array of interesting ideas. Content on the site is contributed by several members of the Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), including faculty, staff, fellows, and students.
