HIMSS TIGER Committee

Informatics Definitions
 HIMSS TIGER Committee Informatics Definitions
Revised June 2018 v3

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
The purpose of this document is to collaboratively define and document core health informatics
terminology in providing context to the global HIMSS TIGER (Technology Informatics Guiding Education
Reform) Initiative’s interprofessional, interdisciplinary community for consideration when terms are
referred to on the TIGER website, in official documents, and within the TIGER Virtual Learning
Environment (VLE). We acknowledge that as the field of informatics continues to grow and change, so
will the terms defined within this resource. As the field evolves, our intention is to have this resource
serve as a helpful tool for those learning about both informatics and informatics competencies.

As TIGER and the healthcare profession continue to grow and expand in an international capacity, it is
important to include definitions relating to informatics that expand beyond borders and regions. This
document seeks to fulfill global terminology needs within the Informatics field while also serving as a
tool. Therefore, it is necessary to include varying terms referenced for similar concepts applied locally,
regionally and nationally to maximize the integration of informatics into seamless practice, education
and resource development globally.

This document was updated in June 2018. Leadership and members of the TIGER Community reviewed
the document, updating it with new definitions, deleting outdated content, re-confirming sources, and
verifying the currency of the definitions.
 Informatics Definitions Table of Contents

1. Bioinformatics ......................................................................................................... 3
2. Biomedical Imaging informatics ................................................................................. 3
3. Biomedical informatics (BMI)..................................................................................... 3
4. Clinical informatics (aka Health informatics) ................................................................ 3
5. Clinical Research Informatics ..................................................................................... 3
6. Dental informatics ................................................................................................... 3
7. Health informatics ................................................................................................... 4
8. Medical informatics ................................................................................................. 4
9. Medical information science...................................................................................... 4
10. Medical informatics study...................................................................................... 4
11. Nursing informatics (NI)......................................................................................... 4
12. Nutrition informatics............................................................................................. 5
13. Personal Health informatics ................................................................................... 5
14. Pharmacy informatics ........................................................................................... 5
15. Public health informatics ....................................................................................... 5
16. Translational Bioinformatics (TBI) ........................................................................... 5

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Informatics Definitions
1. Bioinformatics is a sub-field of biomedical informatics pertaining to the study of information
processing in macromolecules using informatics approaches (derived from disciplines such as
applied math, computer science, and statistics) to understand and organize the information
associated with these molecules, on a large-scale (Chapter 24, Page 695). Bioinformatics has also
been shown to have the potential to assist in clinical decision making with significant impact on
areas such as precision medicine (Chapter 25).
Source: Biomedical Informatics: Computer Application in Health Care and Biomedicine; Mark
Gerstein

2. Biomedical Imaging informatics is a subfield of Biomedical Informatics and addresses image

acquisition, image content representation, image management, image processing and image
interpretation (Chapter 9, Page 286). Acquisition and content representation of biomedical images
are critical steps in the digitization of these images and precedes storage, processing and
subsequent interpretation for medical significance.
Source: Biomedical Informatics: Computer Application in Health Care and Biomedicine

3. Biomedical informatics (BMI) is the interdisciplinary field that studies and pursues the effective uses
of biomedical data, information, and knowledge for scientific inquiry, problem solving, and decision-
making, driven by efforts to improve human health.
Source: AMIA Board White Paper: Definition of Biomedical Informatics and Specification of Core
Competencies for Graduate Education in the Discipline

4. Clinical informatics (aka Health informatics) promotes the understanding, integration, and
application of information technology in healthcare settings. This helps to ensure adequate and
qualified support of clinician objectives and industry best practices.
Source: HIMSS
a. Clinical informatics is the application of informatics and information technology to deliver
healthcare services. It is also referred to as applied clinical informatics and operational
informatics. AMIA considers informatics when used for healthcare delivery to be essentially the
same regardless of the health professional group involved (whether dentist, pharmacist,
physician, nurse, or other health professional). Clinical informatics is concerned with
information use in health care by clinicians. Clinical informatics includes a wide range of topics
ranging from clinical decision support to visual images (e.g., radiological, pathological,
dermatological, ophthalmological, etc.); from clinical documentation to provider order entry
systems; and from system design to system implementation and adoption issues.
Source: AMIA

5. Clinical Research Informatics is an amalgamation of clinical and research informatics, and applies
the core foundations, principles and technologies of health informatics to clinical research. It plays
an important role in clinical research, patient care, and the building of healthcare systems, and is
one of the rapidly growing subdivisions of biomedical informatics.
Source: Virginia Commonwealth University

6. Dental informatics is the application of computer and information science to improve dental
practice, research, education and management. During the last 40 years, it has developed into a
research discipline of significant scale and scope. Dental informatics can be considered a specialty of
medical or health informatics. The field of dental informatics is concerned with the intersection of
health informatics and dentistry as a whole. This is a growing area of interest within the profession,

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 both in academic circles and among practicing dentists; more and more dental schools and dental
practices are implementing Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems and health information
exchanges (HIEs) are beginning a transformation in health care communications. The demands of
federal and state programs to promote EHR adoption among certain health care providers are also
beginning to affect dentists across the country. As a result of these changes, dentistry is engaging
information technology to meet its clinical, administrative, research, and educational needs more
than ever.
Source: Aspects of the definition drawn from the ADA and DentalInformatics.com

7. Health informatics is the interdisciplinary study of the design, development, adoption, and
application of IT-based innovations in public health and healthcare services delivery, management,
and planning. It comprises two main sub-disciplines: clinical informatics and public health
informatics. It is often used to describe the full range of application and research topics for which
biomedical informatics is the pertinent underlying scientific discipline.
Source: Aspects of definition drawn from the AMIA and HIMSS
a. Health informatics is defined as the interdisciplinary study of the design, development,
adoption, and application of IT-based innovations in healthcare services delivery, management,
and planning.
Source: U.S. National Library of Medicine
b. Health or Medical informatics is defined as the scientific field that deals with biomedical
information, data, and knowledge - their storage, retrieval, and optimal use for problem solving
and decision making. It accordingly 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 (medical computer science)
Source: Stanford Medical Informatics via Open Clinical

8. Medical informatics is defined as the interdisciplinary study of the design, development, adoption
and application of IT-based innovations in healthcare services delivery, management and planning.
Source: HIMSS

9. Medical information science is defined as the science of using system-analytic tools to develop
procedures (algorithms) for management, process control, decision-making and scientific analysis of
medical knowledge.
Source: Shortliffe, E.H. (1984). Medical Informatics journal via Open Clinical

10. Medical informatics study is said to study the organization of medical information, the effective
management of information using computer technology, and the impact of such technology on
medical research, education, and patient care. The field explores techniques for assessing current
information practices, determining the information needs of health care providers and patients,
developing interventions using computer technology and evaluating the impact of those
interventions. This research seeks to optimize the use of information in order to improve the quality
of health care, reduce cost, provide better education for providers and patients and to conduct
medical research more effectively.
Source: Stephen B. Johnson, Department of Medical Informatics, Columbia University via Drexel
University

11. Nursing informatics (NI) is the specialty that integrates nursing science with multiple information
management and analytical sciences to identify, define, manage, and communicate data,
information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice. NI supports nurses, consumers, patients,
the interprofessional healthcare team and other stakeholders in their decision-making in all roles

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 and settings to achieve desired outcomes. This support is accomplished through the use of
information structures, information processes and information technology.
Source: Nursing Informatics: Scope and Standards of Practice, 2nd Edition, ANA 2015
a. Nursing Informatics (NI) this science and practice integrates nursing, its information and
knowledge and their management with information and communication technologies to
promote the health of people, families, and communities worldwide.
Source: International Medical Informatics Association – Nursing Informatics, 2011

12. Nutrition informatics is the effective retrieval, organization, storage and optimum use of
information, data and knowledge for food and nutrition related problem solving and decision-
making. Informatics is supported by the use of information standards, processes and technology.
Source: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

13. Personal Health informatics is a combination of computing research, human-centered design, and
health management theory to create promising approaches for promoting wellness, supporting
behavior change and delivering improved health outcomes.
Source: Personal Health Informatics: Theory, Design and Assessment of Mobile Health Technologies

14. Pharmacy informatics is the scientific field that focuses on medication-related data and knowledge
within the continuum of healthcare systems – including its acquisition, storage, analysis, use and
dissemination – in the delivery of optimal medication-related patient care and health outcomes.
Source: HIMSS
a. Pharmacy informatics has grown to be an integral discipline within the clinical informatics
domain, centered on the effective management and delivery of medication related data,
information, and knowledge across systems that support the medication-use process.
Source: ASHP

15. Public health informatics is the systematic application of knowledge about systems that capture,
manage, analyze and use information to improve population health.
Source: CDC
a. Public health informatics is sometimes referred to as population health informatics and is
defined by AMIA as the application of informatics in areas of public health, including
surveillance, prevention, preparedness, and health promotion. Public health informatics and the
related population health informatics, work on information and technology issues from the
perspective of groups of individuals. Public health is extremely broad and can even touch on the
environment, work and living places and more.
Source: AMIA

16. Translational Bioinformatics (TBI) is the development of storage, analytic, and interpretive methods
to optimize the transformation of increasingly voluminous biomedical data, and genomic data, into
proactive, predictive, preventive, and participatory health.
Source: AMIA

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Infographics
Biomedical Informatics
Drawn from the AMIA Resource: JAMIA

Healthcare Informatics Venn Graph

Resource: HL WIKI International

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Health Informatics Venn diagram
Resource: Omni Med Solutions via HL WIKI International & Biomed Central

Population Health Infographic

Resource: Improving Population Health

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Population Health vs. Public Health Informatics
Resource: Sripriya Rajamani, Minnesota Department of Health

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The original Informatics Definitions document was published in June 2016 with compilation by
the FY16 TIGER Committee Co-chairs, Dr. Marion J. Ball, Michelle Troseth and members. The
second edition of the document was updated in June 2017 by the FY17 TIGER Committee Co-
chairs, Dr. Mari Tietze, Dr. Victoria Wangia-Anderson and members. The third edition of the
document was updated in June 2018 by the FY18 TIGER Committee Co-chairs, Dr. Beth Elias, Dr.
Ursula Hübner and members.

For more information, please contact TIGER at [email protected].

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