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PubMed2000

The medical informatics curriculum at the University of Heidelberg/School of Technology Heilbronn: new developments in its 5th revision.

We report about new developments in the 5th version of the medical informatics program at the University of Heidelberg/School of Technology Heilbronn, reflect our approaches for the revision and discuss our current curriculum in relationship to other curricula in health informatics and medical informatics. The specialised university curriculum for medical informatics at the University of Heidelberg/School of Technology Heilbronn is one of the oldest educational approaches in the field of medical informatics. During more than 25 years approx. 1000 students graduated. The program belongs to the category of dedicated master programs for medical informatics and is based on the concept of medical informatics as a medical discipline of its own. It covers the total spectrum of medical informatics ranging from information systems in health care, biosignal and medical image processing, medical documentation, to information and knowledge processing in medicine. It is a 4.5 years program with a strong emphasis on the methodological foundations of medical informatics and on practical education in a number of specific laboratories. For the 5th version of the Heidelberg/Heilbronn curriculum on medical informatics, having started at winter semester 1997/98, we hope to have reflected the evolution of medical informatics as a separate discipline, moving one step further towards educating medical informatics, and not 'just' medicine and informatics.

Curriculum↗

PubMed1997

The internal challenges of medical informatics.

Haux's [7] basic assumption that the object of medical informatics is: "... to assure and to improve the quality of healthcare as well as the quality of research and education in medicine and in the health sciences ..." is taken as a starting point to discuss the three main topics: What is the meaning of medical informatics (i.e. what should be the main activities of medical informatics to bring maximum benefit to medicine)? What are the achievements and failures of medical informatics today (again considering the impact on the quality of healthcare)? What are the main challenges? Concerning the definition of medical informatics it is argued that one should not hide the link to basic informatics and, for that matter to computers, completely behind abstract definitions. After an analysis of the purposes of the definition of a discipline, a differentiated definition of the scope of medical informatics, rather general when concerning the field of scientific interest, more focused when concerning the practical (constructive) applications, is proposed. Contrasting Haux's chapter on achievements of medical informatics we concentrate on and analyse non fulfilled promises of medical informatics to derive lessons for the future and to propose 'generic' (or core) tasks of medical informatics to meet the challenges of the future. A set of 'internal challenges' of medical informatics to change priorities and attitudes within the discipline is put forward to enable medical informatics to meet the 'external challenges' listed by Haux.

Artificial Intelligence↗

PubMed1998

Preparing for the third millennium: the views of life informatics.

The chief aspects of this paper are the condition of the birth of life informatics and its tasks, basic concepts, principles, and structure. There are three phases of combining informatics with medicine: product, technological, and theoretic application of which the goals are respectively the informatization of numerical and word processing, data of medical treatment, and the knowledge of medicine. While reached the third phase we have dealt with two types of biological information, physical and nonphysical, i.e., body information (i.e., the information about body's components and structure), and life information (i.e., the information about life codes and life programs). Life informatics is a main branch of bioinformatics. It is a new member of the medical informatics family, and as such is younger than health informatics, nursing informatics, and dental informatics. It's task is to assist biologists and medical doctors to recognize and interfere the human life information procedure just as they are doing well with human body's matter and energy system. Its basic concepts are life information, life information medicine, and life information therapy. Its most important principles are information materialism, general informatics, and information determinism. Its main branches are biomolecule, cellular, organic, individual, and social informatics. In the third millennium, the life informatics will be a leading discipline in biology, medicine and informatics, which will gradually influence modern philosophy and other humanities.

Biology↗

PubMed2006

Modeling in biomedical informatics: an exploratory analysis part 2.

OBJECTIVE: Modeling is a significant part of research, education and practice in biomedical and health informatics. Our objective was to explore which types of models of processes are used in current biomedical/health informatics research, as reflected in publications of scientific journals in this field. Also, the implications for medical informatics curricula were investigated. METHODS: Retrospective, prolective observational study on recent publications of the two official journals of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), the International Journal of Medical Informatics (IJMI) and Methods of Information in Medicine (MIM). All publications of the years 2004 and 2005 from these journals were indexed according to a given list of model types. Random samples out of these publications were analysed in more depth. RESULTS: Three hundred and eighty-four publications have been analysed, 190 of IJMI and 194 of MIM. For publications in special issues (121 in IJMI) and special topics (132 in MIM) we found differences between theme-centered and conference-centered special issues/special topics (SIT) publications. In particular, we could observe a high variation between modeling in publications of theme-centered SITs. It became obvious that often sound formal knowledge as well as a strong engineering background is needed for carrying out this type of research. Usually, this knowledge and the related skills can be best provided in consecutive B.Sc. and M.Sc. programs in medical informatics (respectively, health informatics, biomedical informatics). If the focus should be primarily on health information systems and evaluation this can be offered in a M.Sc. program in medical informatics. CONCLUSIONS: In analysing the 384 publications it became obvious that modeling continues to be a major task in research, education and practice in biomedical and health informatics. Knowledge and skills on a broad range of model types are needed in biomedical/health informatics.

Bibliometrics↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A Delphi study to determine informatics competencies for nurses at four levels of practice.

BACKGROUND: Despite its obvious need, a current, research-based list of informatics competencies for nurses is not available. OBJECTIVE: To produce a research-based master list of informatics competencies for nurses and differentiate these competencies by level of nursing practice. METHODS: After a comprehensive literature review and item consolidation, an expert panel defined initial competencies. Subsequently, a three round Delphi study was conducted to validate the items. Participants were expert informatics nurse specialists in the United States of America. RESULTS: Of the initial 305 competencies proposed, 281 competencies achieved an 80% or greater agreement for both importance as a competency and appropriateness for the correct practice level. Five competencies were rejected. Six competencies were considered valid competencies but the appropriate level of practice could not be agreed upon. Thirteen competencies did not reach any consensus after the three Delphi rounds. DISCUSSION: The Delphi study had a high rate of participation, demonstrating the great level of interest and need for a list of informatics competencies for nurses. Out of the initial 305 competencies, only 24 items were not validated. Respondents commented during each round about whether computer skills should be considered informatics competencies. The authors propose that computer skills, while not high level, are one set of tools within the larger category of informatics competencies. This sample of experts did not deem programming skills as necessary for informatics nurses. This research study is an initial effort to fill the void of valid and reliable informatics competencies. It is the first study to span four levels of nurses, create competencies for both entry-level and experienced informatics nurse specialists, and examine the categories of computer skills, informatics knowledge and informatics skills.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed2003

A preliminary analysis of the dental informatics literature.

Dental informatics is an emerging discipline applying computer and information science to dental practice, research, education, and management. To date, the dental informatics research literature has not been comprehensively reviewed. This study reports an initial analysis of the dental informatics literature. We developed an initial, comprehensive retrieval strategy to locate dental informatics citations in MEDLINE (1966-April 2003), including three concepts: dentistry, computers, and research. After refinement of the search, we manually classified the final set into four categories: (1) non-dental; (2) dental, but neither dental informatics nor IT-related; (3) dental informatics; and (4) IT in dentistry. We analyzed informatics and IT-related citations regarding their distribution across journals, growth rate, the number of authors and their publication frequency, and content as expressed by Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). The final set of citations (n = 3872) consisted of: 12% non-dental articles; 59% dental, but not informatics- or IT-related articles; 16% informatics-related articles; and 13% IT-related articles. Informatics-related citations appeared in 176 journals, and IT-related citations in 206 journals. Approximately 50 papers are currently published in both categories yearly. While a great many authors have contributed to this literature, very few have published more than three papers. Main topics of articles included "Imaging and Image Processing", "Computer-aided Diagnosis and Therapy", "Computer-aided Instruction", and "Other". The dental informatics literature is small, but growing. Imaging and image processing predominate as research topics.

Bibliographies as Topic↗

PubMed2000

IPHIE: an International Partnership in Health Informatics Education.

Medical informatics contributes significantly to high quality and efficient health care and medical research. The need for well educated professionals in the field of medical informatics therefore is now worldwide recognized. Students of medicine, computer science/informatics are educated in the field of medical informatics and dedicated curricula on medical informatics have emerged. To advance and further develop the beneficial role of medical informatics in the medical field, an international orientation of health and medical informatics students seems an indispensable part of their training. An international orientation and education of medical informatics students may help to accelerate the dissemination of acquired knowledge and skills in the field and the promotion of medical informatics research results on a more global level. Some years ago, the departments of medical informatics of the university of Heidelberg/university of applied sciences Heilbronn and the university of Amsterdam decided to co-operate in the field of medical informatics. Now, this co-operation has grown out to an International Partnership of Health Informatics Education (IPHIE) of 5 universities, i.e. the university of Heidelberg, the university of Heilbronn, the university of Minnesota, the university of Utah and the university of Amsterdam. This paper presents the rationale behind this international partnership, the state of the art of the co-operation and our future plans for expanding this international co-operation.

Curriculum↗

PubMed2006

[Medical informatics education at medical schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina].

AIM: Standardization of education process and almost every aspect of life in EU moved the authors of this paper to evaluate medical informatics education at medical schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A very complex political structure and existence of two entities, one district and ten cantons in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina caused great differences in the curricula, teaching methods and quality of acquired knowledge among medical schools in the country. Also, on the example of the teaching process at the Medical School, University of Sarajevo, the authors propose a future united and integrated system in the area. METHOD: Method of the study is descriptive, comparing education in medical informatics at five B&H medical schools. Over 500 students answered questionnaires designed at medical schools in Sarajevo and Tuzla. The questions tackled the contents of the subject of medical informatics, the possibility of acquiring knowledge from both practical and theoretic lessons, "good" and "bad" sides of the curricula as well as students' computer literacy. RESULTS: The subject of medical informatics is being taught in at least 3-4 different ways. Medical schools in Banja Luka and Foca/Srbinje are under a strong influence of the University of Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro; the teaching staff in Mostar are from Croatia; the University of Tuzla has its own way; and Medical School in Sarajevo maintains high quality values and principles. Things and events that distinguish the Medical School, University of Sarajevo is the fact that it is the only medical school in Bosnia and Herzegovina which has a web site of of the Department of Medical Informatics, organized a number of events including a distance learning course, and has a highly competent teaching staff. Medical School in Sarajevo is the oldest medical school in Bosnia and Herzegovina established in 1944. As a required subject, medical informatics was introduced in the academic year 1992/1993, and it is the only medical school in Bosnia and Herzegovina where medical informatics is taught in two semesters, second and eleventh. DISCUSSION: Three important areas are discussed: the quality of education in secondary schools should be improved; the lack of multimedia equipment, good LAN, high-speed connection to Internet and well organized web design, and issues related to maintenance of equipment; and students should have free access to computer rooms to enable them to extend their knowledge in spare time; general information about health system should be available to students to allow them to require the role and importance of medical informatics in "real life". Naturally, we raise the question of unique and systematic medical informatics education in the whole country, irrespective of entities, nationality or religion of students. CONCLUSION: Medical informatics education at Medical School, University of Sarajevo, is based on the same concept as on prestigious universities all over the world and in accordance with recommendations of the working groups on education of EFMI and IMIA. Other medical schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina should employ the same methodology and system of work in order to have standardized education in medical informatics and to achieve high quality in education. To enable us to follow the European and global achievements in this area, the power of fact should predominate in the education system as well as in the health system.

Bosnia and Herzegovina↗

PubMed2006

Toward a veterinary informatics research agenda: an analysis of the PubMed-indexed literature.

PURPOSE: Veterinary medicine and human health are inextricably intertwined. Effective tracking of veterinary information - veterinary informatics - impacts not only veterinary medicine, but also public health, informatics research, and clinical care. However, veterinary informatics has received little attention from the general biomedical informatics community. METHODS: To identify both active and under-researched areas in veterinary informatics, we retrieved Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) descriptors for veterinary informatics-related citations and analyzed them by topic category, animal type, and journal. RESULTS: We found that the categories of veterinary informatics with the most growth were information/bibliographical retrieval, hardware/programming, and radiology/imaging. Less than two articles per year were published in the areas of computerized veterinary medical records, clinical decision support, standards, and controlled vocabularies. Veterinary informatics articles primarily address production animals such as cattle and sheep, and companion animals such as cats and dogs. Six journals account for 31% of the veterinary informatics literature, 35 journals account for 66%. CONCLUSIONS: Veterinary informatics remains an embryonic field with relatively few publications. With the exception of radiology/imaging, published articles are primarily focused on non-clinical areas such as hardware/programming and information retrieval. There are very few publications on controlled vocabularies, standards, methodologies for integrating disparate systems, computerized medical records, clinical decision support systems, and system usability. The lack of publications in these areas may hamper efforts to collect and track animal health data at a time when such data are potentially critical to human health.

Medical Informatics↗

PubMed2006

Bridging the gap between biological and clinical informatics in a graduate training program.

Several training programs in biomedical informatics in the United States are attempting to integrate biological and clinical informatics. However, significant differences in the cultures underlying these two disciplines pose barriers to a uniform educational solution. This paper recounts the experience at Columbia University in adapting a graduate program with an initial focus on clinical informatics to train bioinformaticians. The analysis begins by considering the development of the medical and biological informatics cultures over a 17-year period. Then we review how two separate curricula evolved to serve the needs of each group. Interviews with bioinformatics students and faculty indicated some dissatisfaction with the curriculum that developed within clinical informatics. Their comments are considered in the light of an analysis of the relationship between the application domains of biomedical informatics as a discipline. In response, a new curriculum was developed in which bioinformatics and clinical informatics are regarded as subdivisions of the same subject. A key feature of this curriculum is a new course, Theory and Methods in Biomedical Informatics, which presents informatics principles in their general form, and illustrates their application with examples drawn from across the biomedical spectrum. The paper concludes with suggestions for integrating informatics training programs at other institutions.

Computational Biology↗

PubMed1997

Health system informatics.

The application of informatics in a health system in general and to pharmacy in particular is discussed. Informatics is the use of information technology to enhance the quality of care, facilitate accountability, and assist in cost containment. Tying the pieces of health care into a seamless system using informatics principles yields a more rational approach to caregiving. A four-layer hierarchy of information systems can be found in any health system: layer 1, the foundational layer formed by a transaction-processing system; 2, the management information system; 3, decision support; and 4, advanced informatics applications such as expert systems. Other industries appear to be ahead of health care in investing in informatics applications. Pharmacy is one of the key health care professions that must adopt informatics. A stepwise structure for pharmacy informatics has been proposed; it consists of establishing a relationship with the patient, establishing a database, listing and ranking problems, choosing among alternatives, and planning and monitoring. Informatics should be approached by determining where the department is going strategically. Informatics standards will be needed. Pharmacists will need to use informatics to enhance their worth on the health care team and to improve patient care.

Case Management↗

PubMed1996

Medical informatics: once more towards systematization.

Commenting on a paper by Van Bemmel (Medical Informatics, Art or Science? [1]), the following questions are raised: What is the meaning of medical informatics?, How to systematize medical informatics?, is medical informatics an art, a science or a technology?. It is argued that medical informatics is concerned with the systematic processing of data, information and knowledge in medicine and health care, and that medical informatics is not just the application of computers in these fields. Three classifications for medical informatics research and education are presented. It is concluded that medical informatics is a scientific medical discipline, similar to surgery, internal medicine, epidemiology, or microbiology; and that medical informatics has a strong relationship with the health sciences concerning its field of application, and to informatics concerning its methods and tools. It is a cross-sectional discipline, with relevance for virtually all other specialties of medicine and the health sciences. This is the reason for its impact on research and education in these specialties. It also causes that the quality of the processing of data, information and knowledge has a direct and considerable effect upon the quality of health care in practically all these specialties.

Delivery of Health Care↗

PubMed1998

Health and medical informatics education: perspectives for the next decade.

It is argued that the progress of information processing and information technology changes our societies. Examples are given that there is a significant economic relevance of information technology for medicine and healthcare and for the quality of healthcare as well. In order to adequately pursue the goal of 'Transforming healthcare through innovative use of information technology for the 21st century' (the topic of the 6th International Conference on Health and Medical Informatics Education and of this special issue of the International Journal of Medical Informatics), health professionals are needed who are well-educated in health informatics or medical informatics, respectively. Raising the scope and the quality of education in the field of health and medical informatics would help to raise the quality and efficiency of healthcare. In this context the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) and its working group 1 (WG1) on Health and Medical Informatics Education can make a contribution by disseminating information and by elaborating recommendations on courses and programs in health and medical informatics. For this purpose IMIA WG1 has established a WWW site (http://www.imia.org/wg1) with information on health and medical informatics programs and courses. All teachers and institutions are encouraged to submit information about courses and programs offered and to set pointers to their own WWW sites. In addition, a mailing list was installed to facilitate communication between all persons involved in health and medical informatics education. For subscription, a message has to be sent to 'listserv@relay.urz.uni-heidelberg.de'. The body of the message should read 'SUBSCRIBE IMIA-WG1'.

Databases as Topic↗

PubMed1998

Education of medical informatics in Bosnia and Herzegowina.

Time of information in which the authors live resulted in the increase of the amount of the information exponential growth of the new kind of knowledge, flourishing of the familiar ones and the appearance of the new sciences. Medical (health) informatics occupies the central place in all the segments of modern medicine in the past 30 years--in practical work, education and scientific research. In all that, computers have taken over the most important role and are used intensively for the development of the health information systems. Following activities develop within the area of health informatics: health-documentation, health-statistics, health-informatics and bio-medical, scientific and professional information. The pioneer in the development of the health statistics and informatics in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) was Dr Evgenije Sherstnew, who was the Chief of Health Statistics in the Ministry of Health of BiH from 1946-1952, and who founded and led, from 1952 to the end of his life, the Department of Medical Documentation and Health Statistics of the Central Health Institute of BiH, the core around which a group of experts for the development of this field have gathered. In the eighties computers were intensively used as a tool for the processing medical data and with them the development of health information systems at the level of the outpatient-clinics, hospitals, clinical centers, as well as the integral information system of health, health insurance and the social security system of BiH began. Finally, Society for Medical Informatics of BiH, which as a professional association gathers experts in the area of health informatics, actively propagates this profession in the Republic, was founded. With reform of the lectures and curriculum at the medical faculty in Sarajevo, the course in 'Medical Informatics' has been in 1992. into the second semester, since it was assumed that an early insight into the principles of information along with studies of so called basic pre-clinic sciences, especially basics of information, would make things easier for the students the more informative education is in the course of their medical studies. The medical faculty in Sarajevo also established and accepted a course of health informatics and economics of post-graduate studies in 1979, of which the main objective is education of experts for work informatics jobs in health care system and services, especially for needs of the future information systems in BiH.

Bosnia and Herzegovina↗

PubMed1997

Medical informatics training in pathology residency programs.

Computers and information technology are increasingly used by pathologists, necessitating training in such technology in pathology residency programs. We surveyed 176 programs in the United States and Canada to assess informatics training in terms of instructional methods used, computer availability, and type of training offered. Eighty-four programs replied, for a response rate of 48%. Ninety percent of programs reported offering formal informatics training, but only 68% of programs required it. A rotation dedicated to teaching informatics was provided in 24% of the programs; in 44% of programs, informatics was integrated with other rotations. The most common instructional methods used were hands-on experience with microcomputers and the use of tutors. In 94% of programs, computers were available for resident use; in 60%, residents had individual computers assigned to them. Five programs offered a dedicated informatics rotation but did not provide residents with individual computers, and 22 programs required informatics training but did not provide residents with individual computers. Comparison of these data with data from 1993 shows an increase in programs offering (90% vs 84%) or requiring (68% vs 59%) informatics. Fewer programs offer a dedicated rotation (24% vs 31%) or integrate informatics training with other rotations (44% vs 69%). These data suggest that although informatics training is considered important by most training programs, inadequate resources and lack of formal, structured programs may limit training.

Canada↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Health professionals' views of informatics education: findings from the AMIA 1999 spring conference.

Health care leaders emphasize the need to include information technology and informatics concepts in formal education programs, yet integration of informatics into health educational programs has progressed slowly. The AMIA 1999 Spring Congress was held to address informatics educational issues across health professions, including the educational needs in the various health professions, goals for health informatics education, and implementation strategies to achieve these goals. This paper presents the results from AMIA work groups focused on informatics education for non-informatics health professionals. In the categories of informatics needs, goals, and strategies, conference attendees suggested elements in these areas: educational responsibilities for faculty and students, organizational responsibilities, core computer skills and informatics knowledge, how to learn informatics skills, and resources required to implement educational strategies.

Computer User Training↗

PubMed2005

[Informatics in the Croatian health care system].

Informatization process of the Croatian health care system started relatively early. Computer processing of data of persons not covered by health insurance started in 1968 in Zagreb. Remetinec Health Center served as a model of computer data processing (CDP) in primary health care and Sveti Duh General Hospital in inpatient CDP, whereas hospital administration and health service were first introduced to Zagreb University Hospital Center and Sestre Milosrdnice University Hospital. At Varazdin Medical Center CDP for health care services started in 1970. Several registries of chronic diseases have been established: cancer, psychosis, alcoholism, and hospital registries as well as pilot registries of lung tuberculosis patients and diabetics. Health statistics reports on healthcare services, work accidents and sick-leaves as well as on hospital mortality started to be produced by CDP in 1977. Besides alphanumeric data, the modern information technology (IT) can give digital images and signals. Communication in health care system demands a standardized format of all information, especially for telemedicine. In 2000, Technical Committee for Standardization in Medical Informatics was founded in Croatia, in order to monitor the activities of the International Standardization Organization (ISO) and Comite Européen de Normalisation (CEN), and to implement their international standards in the Croatian standardization procedure. The HL7 Croatia has also been founded to monitor developments in the communication standard HL7. So far, the Republic of Croatia has a number of acts regulating informatization in general and consequently the informatization of the health care system (Act on Personal Data Confidentiality, Act on Digital Signature, Act of Standardization) enacted. The ethical aspect of data security and data protection has been covered by the Code of Ethics for medical informaticians. It has been established by the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), and the Croatian Society of Medical Informatics (CSMI) has translated it into Croatian and published it on its website. Based on a survey of medical staff attitudes toward health care system informatization, the Croatian health system appears to be ready for informatization. The only requirement is that the present and future health care providers have appropriate medical informatics education, proper computer equipment at their workplace, and an opportunity to participate in the development and/or improvement of the health information system. One of the EU health strategy priorities is the improvement of health information and knowledge. It means that integrated health information systems are required, i.e. systems able to provide key information on health and health care system to the politicians, health professionals and public in general.

Croatia↗

PubMed2001

Dental informatics. A cornerstone of dental practice.

BACKGROUND: Dental informatics is a relatively new field that has significant potential for supporting clinical care. Most dentists are unaware of what dental informatics is, what its goals are, what it has achieved and how they can get involved in it. METHODS: The authors conducted a literature review and several round-table discussions with dental informatics experts to discuss the preceding issues surrounding dental informatics. RESULTS: Dental informatics is the application of computer and information sciences to improve dental practice, research, education and management. Numerous applications that support clinical care, education and research have been developed. Dental informatics is beginning to exhibit the characteristics of a discipline: core literature, trained specialists and educational programs. CONCLUSIONS: Dental informatics presents possible solutions to many long-standing problems in dentistry, but it also faces significant obstacles and challenges. Its maturation will depend as much on the efforts of people as on the collective efforts of the profession. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Dental informatics will produce an increasing number of applications and tools for clinical practice. Dentists must keep up with these developments to make informed choices.

Delivery of Health Care↗