Defining Biomedical Informatics and its Relationship to Dental Research and Practice

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Defining Biomedical Informatics and its
Relationship to Dental Research and Practice

• Edward H. Shortliffe, MD, PhD
• College of Physicians Surgeons
• Columbia University
• Dental Informatics Dental Research Making the
  Connection
• National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
• June 12, 2003

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What is Medical Informatics?

• The scientific field that deals with the storage,
  retrieval, sharing, and optimal use of
  biomedical information, data, and knowledge for
  problem solving and decision making.

Medical informatics touches on all basic and
applied fields in biomedical science and is
closely tied to modern information technologies,
notably in the areas of computing and
communication.
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Medical Informatics in Perspective
Methods, Techniques, and Theories
Basic Research
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Medical Informatics in Perspective
Methods, Techniques, and Theories
Basic Research
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Medical Informatics in Perspective
Methods, Techniques, and Theories
Basic Research
Public Health Informatics
Nursing Informatics
Dental Informatics
Imaging Informatics
Clinical Medicine Informatics
Veterinary Informatics
Bioinformatics
Applied Research
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Medical Informatics in Perspective
Medical Informatics
Basic Research
Methods, Techniques, and Theories
Public Health Informatics
Clinical Informatics
Imaging Informatics
Bioinformatics
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Medical Informatics in Perspective
Medical Informatics Methods, Techniques, and
Theories
Basic Research
Imaging Informatics
Clinical Informatics
Public Health Informatics
Bioinformatics
Molecular and Cellular Processes
Tissues and Organs
Individuals (Patients)
Populations And Society
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Medical Informatics in Perspective
Medical Informatics Methods, Techniques, and
Theories
Imaging Informatics
Clinical Informatics
Public Health Informatics
Bioinformatics
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Medical Informatics in Perspective
Medical Informatics Methods, Techniques, and
Theories
Bioinformatics Methods, Techniques, and Theories
Imaging Informatics
Clinical Informatics
Public Health Informatics
Bioinformatics
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Biomedical Informatics in Perspective
Biomedical Informatics Methods, Techniques, and
Theories
Basic Research
Imaging Informatics
Clinical Informatics
Public Health Informatics
Bioinformatics
Molecular and Cellular Processes
Tissues and Organs
Individuals (Patients)
Populations And Society
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Examples of Growing Synergies Between Clinical
and Bio- Informatics

• Applications at the intersection of genetic and
  phenotypic data
• e.g., pharmacogenomics
• e.g., identification of patient subgroups
• Shared methodologies with broad applicability
• e.g., natural language and text processing
• e.g., cognitive modeling of human-computer
  interaction
• e.g., imaging (organs, biomolecular, 3D)
• e.g., inferring structure from primary data
• e.g., data mining (knowledge extraction) from
  large datasets

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Journal of Biomedical Informatics

• Formerly Computers and Biomedical Research
• Volume 36 in 2003
• Emphasizes methodologic innovation rather than
  applications, although all innovations are
  motivated by applied biomedical goals

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Biomedical Informatics in Perspective
Biomedical Informatics Methods, Techniques,
and Theories
Other Component Sciences
Management Sciences
Information Sciences
Decision Science
Cognitive Science
Applied Informatics
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Core of Biomedical Informatics As An Academic
Discipline
Biomedical Knowledge
Biomedical Data
Data Base
Inferencing System
Knowledge Base
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Biomedical Informatics Research Areas
Biomedical Knowledge
Biomedical Data
Real-time acquisition Imaging Speech/language/text
Specialized input devices
Machine learning Text interpretation Knowledge
engineering
Knowledge Base
Data Base
Inferencing System
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Examples from a Recent Columbia Retreat Cross
Cutting Methodologies

• Natural language and text processing
• Knowledge representation and structuring /
  ontology development
• Cognitive science in biomedical informatics
• Data mining
• 3-dimensional modeling

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Biomedical Informatics in Perspective
Biomedical Informatics Methods, Techniques, and
Theories
Computer Science, Decision Science, Cognitive Scie
nce, Information Sciences, Management Sciences and
other Component Sciences
Draw upon.
Contributes to.
Structural Biology, Genetics, Molecular Biology
Bioinformatics
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Dental Informatics

• Significant opportunities for research across the
  spectrum of biomedical informatics application
  areas (bioinformatics, imaging, clinical, public
  health)
• Challenges exist that can help to drive
  innovation and scientific contributions in
  biomedical informatics and in other,
  non-biomedical, areas of application

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Biomedical Informatics in Perspective
Biomedical Informatics Methods, Techniques, and
Theories
Computer Science, Decision Science, Cognitive Scie
nce, Information Sciences, Management Sciences and
other Component Sciences
Draw upon.
Contributes to.
Oral Medicine, Dentistry, Craniofacial Surgery,
Dental Research
Dental Informatics
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Challenges For Academic Informatics

• Explaining that there are fundamental research
  issues in the field in addition to applications
  and tool building
• Finding the right mix between research/training
  and service requirements
• Developing and nurturing the diverse collegial
  and scientific relationships typical of an
  interdisciplinary field

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Academic Informatics Lessons We Have Learned

• Service activities can stimulate new research and
  educational opportunities
• Need to have enough depth in faculty to span a
  range of skills and professional orientations
• Need to protect students from projects on
  critical paths to meeting service requirements
• Institutional support and commitment are crucial
• Financial stability
• Visibility and credibility with colleagues in
  other health science departments and schools

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Training FutureBiomedical Informatics
Professionals

• The ProblemThere are too few trained
  professionals, knowledgeable about both
  biomedicine and the component sciences in
  biomedical informatics
• The SolutionFormal training in biomedical
  informatics, with the definition of a core
  discipline and specialized elective opportunities

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Curriculum Development

• Perspective of our Department of Biomedical
  Informatics
• Basic objectives fundamental areas of
  biomedicine, computer science and mathematics
  that are prerequisites for further study in
  Biomedical Informatics
• Core objectives essential skills required by all
  Biomedical Informatics students
• General objectives ability to conduct research
  and participate in the educational activities of
  the field
• Specialized objectives application of general
  methods and theories in at least one of four
  different areas bioinformatics, imaging
  informatics, clinical informatics, and public
  health informatics

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Biomedical Informatics Disciplines
Biomedical Informatics
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Biomedical Informatics Curriculum

• Major subject areas
• 1. Biomedical Informatics
• 2. Biomedicine
• 3. Computer Science
• 4. Decision and Cognitive Sciences
• 5. Public Policy and Social Issues

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1. Biomedical Informatics Courses

• Computer applications in health care
• Computer-assisted medical decision making
• Bioinformatics (computational biology)
• Biomedical imaging (imaging informatics)
• Programming projects course
• Weekly student seminars (topic review or research
  report by students)
• Weekly research colloquium
• Biomedical informatics civics

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Medical Informatics Textbook (2nd edition)
Springer Verlag - 2000
2004?
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Program Characteristics

• Steady-state program size 45-50 students
• Dental informatics postdocs 3 students
• Applications per year 130 candidates
• Admissions per year 8-10 students
• Principal faculty 30
• Participating and consulting faculty 20
• Trainees generally supported on a training grant,
  as graduate research assistants on sponsored
  projects, or as teaching assistants

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Doctoral Research in Informatics

• Although they are inspired by biomedical
  application goals, dissertations in biomedical
  informatics must
• offer methodological innovation, not simply
  interesting programming artifacts
• generalize to other domains, within or outside
  biomedicine
• Inherently interdisciplinary, biomedical
  informatics provides bridging expertise and
  opportunities for collaboration between computer
  scientists and biomedical researchers and
  practitioners

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Career Paths for Biomedical Informatics
Professionals

• Academic biomedical informatics research and
  development, and educational support
• Clinical, administrative, and educational
  management
• Operational service management
• Health system chief information officer or
  medical/nursing director for information
  technology
• Digital library development and implementation
• Corporate research and development
• Biotechnology/pharmaceutical companies

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Trends

• Creation of several new biomedical informatics
  departments or independent academic units
• Reasonably strong job market for graduates of
  informatics degree programs
• Government investment in training and research is
  reasonably strong, especially for applications
  and demonstrations
• Increasing acceptance of biomedical informatics
  as an emerging subspecialty area by biomedical
  professional societies
• Increasing recognition that biomedical problems
  can drive the development of basic theory and
  capabilities in information technology research