2015 Update of Site, What is Biomedical & Health Informatics?

All through my career, I have been asked on a regular basis, What is Medical/Biomedical/Health Informatics? Years ago, to answer this question, I created a Web site that attempted to answer it. Later on, I added some voice-over-Powerpoint lectures, which also provided me the opportunity to demonstrate the technologies we use in our distance learning program at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU).

Keeping a site like this up to date is no small feat, especially with all my other activities in research, education, and administration. As such, the site has grown out of date from time to time. I am pleased to announce that I have now updated the lecture and references on the site, perhaps being somewhat less ambitious in the breadth of material that I cover. (Though I do hope to add more up-to-date material over time.)

The educational methods I use on this site mirror my on-line teaching. I have always found great value in voice-over-Powerpoint lectures, especially using the Articulate Presenter tool that provides the slides and sound in Flash format and also allows easy navigation among the slides. I also provide PDF files of the slides as well as another PDF that has references to all of the papers, reports, books, and other citations in the lecture. The site also contains a list of key textbooks as well as links to some of my papers and to important organizations and other sites for the field.

I also hope the site will whet peoples' appetites for the AMIA-OHSU 10x10 ("ten by ten") program, the OHSU biomedical informatics graduate program, or other educational programs in the field. I look forward to receiving feedback from people and take full responsibility for any errors in any of the materials I have produced.