Progress Achieved, Landmarks, and Future Concerns in Biomedical and Health Informatics

Area of Science:

• Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI) as a scientific discipline.
• Rapid advancements and innovations in BMHI, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background:

• BMHI has a 50-year history marked by challenges, successes, and evolving expectations.
• This paper reviews the progress, evaluates milestones, and discusses future challenges within the BMHI field.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide a comprehensive assessment of the BMHI discipline's progress.
• To identify key milestones and evaluate future challenges in BMHI.
• To offer recommendations for advancing future innovations in BMHI.

Main Methods:

• A structured, step-by-step qualitative methodology was employed.
• Expert opinions and literature trends were gathered and analyzed.
• Five key dimensions were identified: informatics in biomedicine/healthcare, health data, nursing informatics, education/accreditation, and ethical/legal/social/security issues.

Main Results:

• Emerging innovations like AI, digital health tools, telemedicine, mHealth, and wearables are shaping healthcare.
• BMHI now incorporates patient-centric, remote monitoring, and precision medicine approaches.
• Key dimensions were examined through the lens of current innovations and future healthcare needs.

Conclusions:

• Recommendations are provided for enhancing education and developing experts to drive future BMHI innovations.
• This review offers a human-centric perspective on BMHI, serving as a reference for future analysis and development.
• The study emphasizes the importance of a deep understanding of BMHI for prospective innovation.