Structural relationships within medical informatics.

This study seeks to increase our understanding of the structure of Medical Informatics. In particular, it focuses on the relationships between information science and information technology on the one hand, and biomedical research, clinical practice, and medical education on the other, that have defined "medical informatics." Using indexing terms and MeSH tree structures assigned to medical informatics literature covered by MEDLINE, co-occurrence analysis provides a "map" of the field. Major research and application focuses arrayed within the map elucidate a finer structure than reported previously. Dimensions "Techniques vs. Systems" and "Signs & Symptoms vs. Processes" form the two axes of the map and relate to the relationships underlying the indexing assignments given to the literature studied. Related studies underway using the INSPEC database will provide a complementary perspective on the structure of medical informatics as a field.