Defining medical information sciences: a health care science for the future

There exists a field; there are already researchers committed and busily at work; and there are meetings, journals, and organizations. Principal researchers in the field and those willing to lend their support should renew their efforts at crystallizing the identity of the field. In reviewing the nature of the field, there is a reasonable definition possible that is responsive to three fundamental constituents related to health care: the setting in which the care is provided, the patient to whom it is provided, and the health care professional by whom it is provided. Using these areas, we get a natural division of the field that is also historically and intuitively appealing. Using these divisions, research issues can be identified since information processing activities in the three categories become the areas to investigate. Instruction needs are similarly implied since one should have some understanding of each of these areas as part of a total health care science. In addition, understanding of the major information processing methodologies, combined with broad topics about the milieu appropriate for the professional, comprises a suitable graduate programme of study. By whatever title, the time is ripe to move forward on the enterprise to advance medical information science by self-identification and common support.