CRITICAL DIMENSIONS IN MEDICAL INFORMATICS

A typology of medical informatics applications is proposed around thre e dimensions: the dimension of care, the dimension of. information and knowledge, and the aspects of the computerized society. These dimensi on can help both to evaluate application or research papers in the fie ld or to derive long term goals for the discipline. In the first dimen sion medical informatics appears more as a technology driven by extern al forces such as the general progress of medicine or the integration of economical constraints in the choice of optimal procedures. It is a rgued that barriers to overcome as well as challenges for future resea rch mainly remain in the two last dimensions. (C) 1997 Elsevier Scienc e Ireland Ltd.