Creating and Using Ontologies: What Informatics is All About

In search of common denominators The field of medical informatics continues to have an identity crisis. Our most articulate spokespeople seem to be unsure whether our discipline is called “medical informatics,” or “biomedical informatics,” or “health informatics,” or some other term. When asked what is the subject matter of our field, we typically respond first by saying, “it’s interdisciplinary” or “it brings together computers and health care.” We tend to define what we do in terms of what other academic communities do, without highlighting our unique intellectual contribution.