The Origins of Informatics

Abstract

This article summarizes the origins of informatics, which is based on the science, engineering, and technology of computer hardware, software, and communications. In just four decades, from the 1950s to the 1990s, computer technology has progressed from slow, first-generation vacuum tubes, through the invention of the transistor and its incorporation into microprocessor chips, and ultimately, to fast, fourth-generation very-large-scale-integrated silicon chips. Programming has undergone a parallel transformation, from cumbersome, first-generation, machine languages to efficient, fourth-generation application-oriented languages. Communication has evolved from simple copper wires to complex fiberoptic cables in computer-linked networks. The digital computer has profound implications for the development and practice of clinical medicine.

A new paradigm for developmental biology

“…This allows both higher information density and improved transmission accuracy, the latter to overcome the problem of amplified noise (unintended crosstalk) inherent in analogue computation, thereby achieving higher operational sophistication and complexity (see e.g. Collen, 1994). Good examples are the transition from analogue to digital computing (Weinstein and Keim, 1965) and the evolution of aircraft from purely mechanical devices to modern passenger or military jets, wherein a large proportion of the information and cost is The ratio of the total bases of non-protein-coding to the total bases of genomic DNA per sequenced genome across phyla (i.e.…”

Knowledge, Skills, and Resources for Pharmacy Informatics Education

“…2 Shortly thereafter, the term informatique medicale (medical informatics) was coined in France and subsequently adopted broadly. 3 As medical informatics became a recognized term, the debate began on how best to educate its corps of aspiring practitioners. The basis for formal education on the subject was conceived by a forward-looking group of experts almost 40 years ago.…”

Hospital Information Systems: a Study of Electronic Patient Records

“…The use of computers in medicine dates back to the 1950s with studies that attempted to expand the mental capacity of physicians (Stumpf and Freitas, 1997) or dealt with research on electrophysiology (Collen, 1986). With the evolution of this equipment, especially with the capacity to simultaneously execute various tasks beginning in the 1960s, computers began to be used in the processing of information in large hospitals, in both administrative and financial functions for the collection of statistics and the development of research projects (Stead, 2007;Stumpf and Freitas, 1997).…”

“…This situation was also investigated by McDonald (1997), who analyzed the lack of interconnection of the different systems used by the hospitals, laboratories, and service providers in the healthcare field. Collen (1986) described the development of approaches in the 1970s that sought to approximate the habitual processes of decision-making with the use of artificial intelligence in differential diagnoses. In the same decade, studies were undertaken in search of a better organization of the healthcare system (Kaihara, 1978).…”