Office of Medical Informatics

About the Office of Medical Informatics

Medical Informatics is concerned with the application of information science and technology to medical education, research and patient care. Medical Informatics is a diverse, multi-disciplinary field that includes librarians, computer scientists, educators, and clinicians. Medical Informatics research is equally diverse, including clinical outcomes, quality improvement, genomics (bioinformatics), population biology, public health, and education at all levels.

The Office of Medical Informatics was created by the Dean in 1990 to enhance the medical education and patient care missions of the College of Medicine. For more than ten years our office has endeavored to develop appropriate and cost-effective information technologies in these areas. The following principles have guided our efforts:

  • Information technology must be viewed from an ecological perspective. Information systems do not stand alone; they effect and are affected by the operational environment. Understanding how information technology fits into the larger context is the key to its effective use.
  • It is not enough to merely automate a process. Automation without process redesign often leads to a negative outcome. Technology should be applied to transform systems and solve problems. "The enlightened user understands that computer technology is a vehicle for creating change." - Joseph Izzo
  • Economies of scale, multiple use, and reuse should be design goals whenever possible. End users, such as students or physicians, should always be part of the design process. Ongoing feedback from users is essential for quality improvement.
  • The primary focus of medical education should be patient care - not technology. There is no need to devote large amounts of curricular time on "computers skills" in isolation. Students will become "literate" by using computers to perform tasks related to their course of study.
  • "Computers should be used to enhance, not replace, the teacher and supplement, not supplant, traditional teaching methods." - Andy Reinhardt
  • Patient care, not financial services, should drive the design of clinical systems. These systems should provide the clinician with a simple, unified view of patient data from various sources. Data should be collected as close to its source as possible. The quality of clinical data is directly related to its use for patient care.

The Office of Medical Informatics provides many services for College of Medicine students and faculty:

Richard Rathe, MD
Director and Associate Dean

OMI Staff

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Resources

Projects & Publications