The structure of medical informatics: Bibliography on educational courses at the Free University, Amsterdam

Abstract

1. DefinitionFrom the viewpoint of hard- or software construction, computer applications in medicine are not very different from those in any other area of science and technology. The main (and sole) difference lies in the specific type of (medical) process that is related to certain applications. For that reason the field of medical informatics is considerably larger than simply computer application to medicine; it deals with the research of processes in medicine and health care, and the development of software systems (algorithms) to solve problems related to these processes. Hence, R & D in medical informatics requires a specific approach, related as closely to medicine as to informatics (computer science) itself. This is even more necessary if such problems concern distinct medical, i.e., diagnostic or therapeutic, processes. On this basis a definition of medical informatics can be formulated as follows:

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