Informatics at the National Institutes of Health: a call to action

Biomedical informatics, imaging, and engineering are major forces driving t he knowledge revolutions that are shaping the agendas for biomedical resear ch and clinical medicine in the 21st century. These disciplines produce the tools and techniques to advance biomedical research, and continually feed new technologies and procedures into clinical medicine. To sustain this for ce, an increased investment is needed in the physics, biomedical science, e ngineering, mathematics, information science, and computer science undergir ding biomedical informatics, engineering, and imaging. This investment shou ld be made primarily through the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Howev er,the NIH is not structured to support such disciplines as biomedical info rmatics, engineering, and imaging that cross boundaries between disease- an d organ-oriented institutes. The solution to this dilemma is the creation o f a new institute or center at the NIH devoted to biomedical imaging, engin eering, and informatics. Bills are being introduced into the 106th Congress to authorize such an entity. The pathway is long and arduous, from the int roduction of bills in the House and Senate to the realization of new opport unities for biomedical informatics, engineering, and imaging at the NIH. Th ere are many opportunities for medical informaticians to contribute to this realization.