MEDICAL INFORMATICS - ONCE MORE TOWARDS SYSTEMATIZATION

Commenting on a paper by Van Bemmel (Medical Informatics, Art or Scien ce? [1]), the following questions are raised: What is the meaning of m edical informatics?, How to systematize medical informatics?, Is medic al informatics an art, a science or a technology?. It is argued that m edical informatics is concerned with the systematic processing of data , information and knowledge in medicine and health care, and that medi cal informatics is not just the application of computers in these fiel ds. Three classifications for medical informatics research and educati on are presented. It is concluded that medical informatics is a scient ific medical discipline, similar to surgery, internal medicine, epidem iology, or microbiology; and that medical informatics has a strong rel ationship with the health sciences concerning its field of application , and to informatics concerning its methods and tools. It is a cross-s ectional discipline, with relevance for virtually all other specialtie s of medicine and the health sciences. This is the reason for its impa ct 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 pr actically all these specialties.