Abstract:This paper tries to compare six Health Informatics/Medical Informatics (HI/MI) programs by a number of attributes in standardized form. The different programs and their curricula were summarized at the 5th IMIA Working Conference on HI/MI Education at Heidelberg/Heilbronn. The presentation is condensed to a synoptical scheme. Most of the information used for this purpose is taken from five individual papers about the programs presented in this special issue of Methods of Information in Medicine.

SummaryBackground: Biomedical informatics is a broad discipline that borrows many methods and techniques from other disciplines. Objective: To reflect a) on the character of biomedical informatics and to determine whether it is multi-disciplinary or inter-disciplinary; b) on the question whether biomedical informatics is more than the sum of its supporting disciplines and c) on the position of biomedical informatics with respect to related disciplines. Method: Inviting an international group of experts in biomedical informatics and related disciplines on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Methods of Information in Medicine to present their viewpoints. Results and Conclusions: This paper contains the reflections of a number of the invited experts on the character of biomedical informatics. Most of the authors agree that biomedical informatics is an interdisciplinary

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Summary Objective: Health and medical informatics (HMI) is an evolving discipline. Therefore, evolving educational programs in HMI have to take a variety of requirements into account. The aim of this paper is to analyze these requirements and to compare them with the medical informatics program Heidelberg/Heilbronn, Germany. Methods: Systematic analysis of the IMIA recommendations on educating HMI, the Bologna declaration, current technological and health care developments and the results of graduates surveys. Results: The latest revision of the Heidelberg/ Heilbronn medical informatics program not only takes current developments into account but also realizes the IMIA recommendations, the Bologna declaration and graduates’ data and feedback obtained in structured surveys. The topics bioinformatics, IT security and tele-medicine were strengthened, taking major research and application trends into account. The program has been transformed into a consecutive bachelor/master program. It qualifies its graduates to work in the field of medical informatics as well as in informatics. Conclusions: Medical informatics is a very broad field. Programs have to make concessions to scope: It is not possible to provide profound knowledge and skills in computer science and also teach a variety of application areas like bioinformatics, public health informatics and clinical informatics in depth within one medical informatics program. Many graduate programs in various nations concentrate on providing HMI skills to health care professionals.