Welcome to the 8th Edition of Health Informatics: Practical Guide. The goal of this textbook is to provide a comprehensive introduction to the field of health informatics (also known as biomedical and health informatics or just plain informatics) for students. The book can also serve as a current update for those who are already practitioners. As in any professional field, there is a knowledge base and history of scientific progress in informatics that informs current practice.
The impetus for this book came from Robert Hoyt, MD, who served as the lead Editor for the first seven editions. In preparing the seventh edition, Dr. Hoyt engaged me as a Co-Editor, with the plan for me to become the Editor of the 8th edition, and hopefully beyond. Dr. Hoyt and his wife Dr. Ann Yoshihashi have been great mentors in the process of putting a book like this together. As with the previous editions, the book will be available in print and ebook formats.
This book is aimed at those who wish to learn about the field of biomedical and health informatics. The content is almost completely redone from previous editions and roughly follows a course I have taught for three decades to about 5000 students in a graduate course at Oregon Health & Science University, the American Medical Informatics Association 10x10 ("ten by ten") program, and a number of other derivative courses for medical students, graduate students, and health IT professionals. I have engaged a variety of other authors for many of the chapters to give additional expertise and perspective. This edition of the book is completely rewritten from earlier editions, reflecting the profound change and progress in the field.
The book is available from other online book retailers. The ISBN numbers for the print and ebook versions are:
A list of errata in the book is available.
William Hersh, MD, FACP, FACMI, FAMIA, FIAHSI
Professor and Chair
Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology
School of Medicine
Oregon Health & Science University
Portland, OR, USA
Kate Fultz Hollis, MS, MBI, FAMIA
Informatician
Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology
School of Medicine
Oregon Health & Science University
Portland, OR, USA
Alex A.T. Bui, PhD
Professor, Departments of Radiological Sciences, Bioengineering & Bioinformatics
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Harry B. Burke, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine
Chief, Section of Safety, Quality, and Value
Director, DHA-USU Patient Safety and Quality Academic Collaborative
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Bethesda, MD, USA
Hugo O. Campos
Participant Partner and Community Advisory Board member, All of Us Research Program
Oakland, CA, USA
Bimal R. Desai, MD, MBI, FAAP, FAMIA
Chief Health Informatics Officer
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Brian E. Dixon, MPA, PhD, FACMI, FAMIA, FHIMSS
Associate Professor
Department of Epidemiology
Indiana University Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Center for Biomedical Informatics, Regenstrief Institute
Indianapolis, IN, USA
Michelle R. Hribar, PhD, FAMIA
Associate Professor
Medical Informatics & Ophthalmology
Oregon Health & Science University
Portland, Oregon, USA
William Hsu, PhD
Associate Professor, Departments of Radiological Sciences, Bioinformatics, & Bioengineering
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Susan C. Hull, MSN, RN-BC, NEA-BC, FAMIA
Principal, Consumer Health Informatics
MITRE Labs, Health Innovation Center
The MITRE Corporation
McLean, VA, USA
Elizabeth Hutchins, MD
Medical Informatics Home Area
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Robert A Jenders, MD, MS, FACP, FACMI, FHL7, FAMIA
Senior Associate Director, Clinical and Translational Science Institute
Professor of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles
Co-Director, Center for Biomedical Informatics
Professor of Medicine
Charles Drew University
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Michelle R. Jones, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Biomedical Science
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Katherine K. Kim, PhD, MPH, MBA
Principal, Consumer Health Informatics and Health Science
MITRE Corporation, Health Innovation Center
McLean, VA
Adjunct Associate Professor
University of California Davis, School of Medicine, Department of Public Health Sciences
Davis, CA, USA
Ruowang Li, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Computational Biomedicine
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Ken Masters, PhD
Associate Professor: Medical Informatics
Sultan Qaboos University
Sultanate of Oman
Jason H. Moore, PhD, FACMI, FIAHSI, FASA
Professor and Chair
Department of Computational Biomedicine
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Thomas H Payne, MD
Professor of Medicine
Department of Biomedical Informatics & Medical Education
University of Washington School of Medicine
Seattle, WA, USA
John Rasmussen
Senior Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer
Syneos Health
Morrisville, NC, USA
Kirk Roberts, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Biomedical Informatics
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Houston, TX, USA
Sayantani Sarkar, PhD
Post-doctoral Scholar
University of California Davis, School of Medicine, Department of Public Health Sciences
Davis, CA, USA
Sony Tuteja, PharmD, BCPS, FAHA
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine
Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Anurag Verma, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Genetics
Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Tamara J. Winden PhD, FAMIA, FHIMSS
Vice President
Sanford Research and Innovation
Sanford Health
Sioux Falls, SD, USA
Al Rahrooh
Medical Informatics Home Area
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Anil Yadav
Department of Bioengineering
UCLA Samueli School of Engineering
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Last updated - January 2, 2023