The need for informatics to support forensic pathology and death investigation

As a result of their practice of medicine, forensic pathologists create a wealth of data regarding the causes of and reasons for sudden, unexpected or violent deaths. This data have been effectively used to protect the health and safety of the general public in a variety of ways despite current and historical limitations. These limitations include the lack of data standards between the thousands of death investigation (DI) systems in the United States, rudimentary electronic information systems for DI, and the lack of effective communications and interfaces between these systems. Collaboration between forensic pathology and clinical informatics is required to address these shortcomings and a path forward has been proposed that will enable forensic pathology to maximize its effectiveness by providing timely and actionable information to public health and public safety agencies.