Medical informatics in the veterinary clinical laboratory: an integrated subspecialty in diagnostics, resident training and clinical research

Medical informatics is the organization, processing, retrieval, and communi cation of information in medical practice, education and research, and the science and technology needed to support those tasks. Clinical laboratory i nformatics is the subdiscipline at the interface of medical informatics and laboratory medicine. Laboratory medicine (clinical pathology) is particula rly well-suited for integration with medical informatics because of the lar ge amounts of quantitative and morphologic data generated in the laboratory . Laboratory informatics includes the models and tools for managing, storin g, and transforming laboratory data into useful information and clinical kn owledge. These tools include laboratory information systems, databases, lab oratory standardization protocols, digital image processing, decision suppo rt systems, and data mining. Laboratory informatics is a key discipline in the future of veterinary diagnostics, resident training and clinical resear ch. Diagnosticians must be adept at managing, processing and analyzing labo ratory information, and augmenting its value for clinicians. Subspecialty t raining in medical informatics should become an integral part of resident t raining in veterinary clinical pathology. Medical informatics research will play an important role in exploring and adding to the value of laboratory data, and contributing to veterinary medical discovery.