Abstract
The history of medical computing has been closely tied to the growing capability of computers. In general, there has been a lag of 5 years between a technical advance in the computer field and its use in medical computing. It is convenient, therefore, to divide computer development into phases by decade and medical applications into 10-year phases that span the decades. By following this convention, it is possible to describe the state-of-the-art in medical computing in the context of the computer technology available to support it. It is also possible to project—based on current trends in computer technology—what the next phase of medical computing may bring.
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Reference
For Further Reading
There is a growing number of books that deal with what we have chosen to call Medical Informatics. B. Jacobson and J. G. Webster have assembled a useful text in Medical and Clinical Engineering, Prentice Hall, 1977.
As the title suggests, it is more concerned with the application of engineering than the use of computers. J. D. Brenzino has produced a thorough survey in Computer Applications for Patient Care, Addison-Wesley, 1982.
This contains chapters on materials not included in this text such as the clinical laboratory, automated multiphasic health testing, diagnostic support systems, patient monitoring, and medical imaging. Several of the classic books are now out of print and somewhat dated. An excellent modern introduction to the field is D. A. B. Lindberg, The Growth of Medical Information Systems in the United States, Lexington Books, 1979.
A text with a European viewpoint is F. Wingert, Medical Informatics, Springer-Verlag, 1979.
Artech House has prepared two good collections of reprints: V. Sondak, H. Schwartz and N. Sondak (eds), Computers and Medicine (1979)
N. Sondak and F. Kavaler, Computers in Medical Administration (1980) (which includes more than its title suggests). Springer-Verlag has a Computers in Medicine series which also includes reprints.
The first volumes are B. I. Blum (ed), Information Systems for Patient Care (1984)
J. A. Reggia and S. Tuhrim (eds) Computer-Assisted Medical Decision Making (2 volumes, 1985).
P. Szolovits has edited a volume called Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, Westview Press, 1982.
W. Clancey and E. Shortliffe have also edited a collection called Readings in Medical Artificial Intelligence: the First Decade, Addison-Wesley, 1984.
The September 1979 issue of the Proceedings of the IEEE was devoted to Technology and Health Care; it contains a fine collection of papers on that topic. For office practice systems there is B. B. Oberst and R. A. Reid (eds), Computer Applications to Private Office Practice, Springer-Verlag, 1984.
Among the texts in process which I have not seen are An Introduction to Medical Information Science, edited by E. Shortliffe, G. Weiderhold, and L. Fagan on medical informatics and an introductory outline of the field by D. Levenson, Computers in Clinical Medicine: An Overview, MacMillan, 1985.
For persons interested in clinical information systems, there are two annual U.S. meetings of interest. One key source is the Symposium on Computer Applications in Medical Care (SCAMC) which holds an East coast meeting in October or November. The proceedings are a rich source of current work. The American Assocation for Medical Systems and Informatics (AAMSI) is a membership organization with a principal interest in this field. They hold an annual West coast Congress each May; there also are proceedings. The major international meeting is MEDINFO. It is triennial and last met in 1983.
Few journals are devoted to clinical information systems. Indeed, much of the literature is diffused throughout the medical journals. This makes the identification of works somewhat difficult and also leads to articles of varying technical quality. The bibliography for Chapters 7, 8 and 9 includes many of the most common sources.
References
Adopted from materials provided by R. E. Miller, personal communication.
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Van Bemmel, J., The Structure of Medical Informatics, Medical Informatics 1984 9(3). This special issue of Medical Informatics is devoted to the proceedings of a workshop on a Framework for Medical Information Science.
Shortliffe, E. H., The Science of Biomedical Computing, J. Anderson, F. Gremy, A. Levy and J. C. Pages (eds), Information Science and Medical Education, North Holland, 1984. Reprinted in Medical Informatics 1984 9(3).
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Blum, B.I. (1986). Computers and Health Care. In: Clinical Information Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-26537-6_2
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