About Medical and Dental Informatics

Medical informatics is the intersection of information science and medicine. It deals with the resources, devices and methods required to optimize the acquisition, storage, retrieval and use of information in health and biomedicine.

Many confuse medical informatics with the mere application of computers (=information technology).

Dental informatics is the application of computer and information science to improve dental practice, research, education and management. It is a sub-discipline of biomedical informatics.

Digital imaging and image processing, computer-based dental records, clinical decision support and teledentistry are only some examples of research topics in dental informatics.

Subdomains of (bio)medical or health care informatics include: clinical informatics, nursing informatics, consumer health informatics, public health informatics, clinical research informatics, pharmacy informatics, bioinformatics, imaging informatics, dental informatics and to some extent biomedical engineering

Informatics is a research discipline, and much of its basic research is about information, not computers. Computers are used along the way as any other tool. They are just equipment.
The methods used in this research come from fields such as information science, computer science, cognitive science and telecommunications. Eventually, many innovations in the informatics field are translated into computer programs or devices, and that is where informatics becomes information technology.

It is the understanding, skills and tools that enable the sharing and use of information to promote oral health and improve dental practice, research, education and management.

Biomedical engineering (BME) is the application of engineering principles and techniques to the medical field. It combines the design and problem solving expertise of engineering with the medical expertise of physicians to help improve patient health care and the quality of life of healthy individuals. Much of the work in biomedical engineering consists of research and development, covering an array of fields: bioinformatics, medical imaging, image processing, physiological signal processing, biomechanics, biomaterials and bioengineering, systems analysis, 3-D modeling and reconstruction, haptics, etc.

Want to help?

If you want to help in the  projects then please post your details on the User Documentation Forum or the Developer Documentation Forum