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There are a variety of definitions of medical informatics, but a few common themes run through them...

In essence:

Medical informatics is the scientific study and practical design, selection, implementation, evaluation, and maturation of systems that underlie the management (acquisition, classification, storage, retrieval, dissemination, and usage) of medical information, with the aim of supporting evidence-based decision making in medical education, research, administration, and practice.

Someone working in this field is generally called a medical informaticist (or informatician, if you prefer). Other more colourful job titles, such "clinical information architect" (Sittig et al. Proc Annu Symp Comput Appl Med Care 1995) and medical "knowledge architect" also exist. "Architect" (as in the designer of an information processing or knowledge framework) is sometimes used synonymously with "engineer" (itself synonymous with "systems analyst" according to Bemmel and Musen). Data, information or knowledge "miners" are also described to emphasise a role in retrieval (but a small part of informatics). These titles sometimes reflect confusion over the differences between data, information, and knowledge (see below). In any case, a medical informaticist requires skills in the triad of medicine, management, and information technology (Silvertein [URL defunct]). This triad helps distinguish medical informatics from health informatics.

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