Formal definition definition by Asso. of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) 1986 : "Medical informatics is a developing body of knowledge and a set of techniques concerning the organizational management of information in support of medical research, education, and patient care. Medical informatics combines medical science with several technologies and disciplines in the information and computer sciences and provides methodologies by which these can contribute to better use of the medical knowledge base and ultimately to better medical care."

Dr Chetan's definition : The wedding of medicine and computational methods that few doctors attend , this is one marriage that surely wasn't made in heaven !!

Guys - if you still think that computers in medicine is only web-page designing and maintenance ..........its time you woke up , threw cold water on your face and saw around - the progress has been amazing and promises to be better. Information technology has made a radical change in patient care and hospital mangement and medicine research . I could cite a few examples here ........

1 ] An A.M.I. patient arrives at an ICCU at say , Cooper Hospital - a call is sent to the Doc - till that time the intern "wires" off the patient to a real-time digital monitoring system ...the computer accepts ECG input , digital BP input , non - invasive arterial gas status- makes a provisional diagnosis , prints out a plan of action for the nurse , intern (in case they forget something vital ) - searches patient's previous treatment and drug history records from a National Database Archive - then rapidly compares similar digital profiles of 1000 other previous cases , gives a rough estimate of prognosis and may also point put certain fatal mistakes one might make while managing the patient - based on previous cases - whats more - a single comp can do it simulateously for 20-30 patients .


2 ] they can also carry out the "15 minutes" BP checks once the Digital machine is wired to them and trigger alarms if something is wrong . You might say " big deal" - but let it be understood that you will never be so fast ,so sleepless and so complete and as alert as the computer .


3 ] Computers reduce writing work to zero - (will it mean KEM interns will have nothing to do !!! ) - students can learn from computer " anytime anywhere digital library access " and also check out the complete analysis of the patients they are assigned - I mean the exact logic flow the computer considered before it made the diagnosis - a great learning tool !! So the number of applications will depend on how many you can think of !!!!!