On the methodology and scientific fundamentals of organizing, representing and analysing data, information and knowledge in biomedicine and health care.

This issue of Methods of Information in Medicine celebrates the journal's first 50 years. As the oldest journal in biomedical and health informatics and, being broader in its scope, as the journal dealing with the methodology and scientific fundamentals of organizing, representing and analysing data, information and knowledge in biomedicine and health care, the journal publications during the last five decades also reflect the formation of a scientific field that deals with information in biomedicine and health care. Five papers that arose from a scientific symposium on "biomedical informatics: confluence of multiple disciplines" held in Heidelberg, Germany, in June 2011 are included in this volume. The papers reflect not only the broad interdisciplinary scope of the journal, but also the broad and evolving scope of the field itself. We can also recognise that there is an ongoing need for original and relevant research. As a discipline that has an impact on many other fields and is also influenced by them, scientific exchange and collaborative research continues to be needed.