I agree with the thoughts around calling individuals with these skills/experience Informaticians. I am an Informatician in the public health arena, although much of my experience is in healthcare. My educational training is varied... biostatistics, leadership, and informatics. My experience is healthcare IT and public health informatics. In my field there are many informaticians emerging from different areas of experience, not too many who are purely trained in informatics with no experience. One of the greatest challenges for the field in public health is separating informatics from information technology. They are not the same. Both IT and informatics are mission critical. As the field continues to gain ground, it will be important for informaticians to be able to clearly build the case for informatics.
Cosmos - 7 years ago
I attend ANIA and AMIA every year. Do I qualify as an informaticist?
Harry Solomon - 7 years ago
There is a debate as to the proper term - I prefer "informaticist", but others say "informatician". As with physicist and physician, maybe those who specialize on the technical software and systems engineering side should be called informaticists, and those who specialize on the clinical applications and user experience should be called informaticians.
Fred - 7 years ago
Informatics is not a clinical only discipline. The creation of a successful user experience involves not only understanding the genre, (clinical or financial), but the work flows needed to accomplish a task. A successful informatics practioner understands both plus the data environment and can translate those elements into a useful tool for input and extraction of information.
I agree with the thoughts around calling individuals with these skills/experience Informaticians. I am an Informatician in the public health arena, although much of my experience is in healthcare. My educational training is varied... biostatistics, leadership, and informatics. My experience is healthcare IT and public health informatics. In my field there are many informaticians emerging from different areas of experience, not too many who are purely trained in informatics with no experience. One of the greatest challenges for the field in public health is separating informatics from information technology. They are not the same. Both IT and informatics are mission critical. As the field continues to gain ground, it will be important for informaticians to be able to clearly build the case for informatics.
I attend ANIA and AMIA every year. Do I qualify as an informaticist?
There is a debate as to the proper term - I prefer "informaticist", but others say "informatician". As with physicist and physician, maybe those who specialize on the technical software and systems engineering side should be called informaticists, and those who specialize on the clinical applications and user experience should be called informaticians.
Informatics is not a clinical only discipline. The creation of a successful user experience involves not only understanding the genre, (clinical or financial), but the work flows needed to accomplish a task. A successful informatics practioner understands both plus the data environment and can translate those elements into a useful tool for input and extraction of information.