Medical informatics conference papers: a content analysis of research in a new discipline.

One of the hallmarks of a mature discipline is a varied and robust body of literature describing the research activities of the discipline. Medical informatics has rapidly become an accepted scientific discipline, having emerged from two long established disciplines (medical and computer science). This study looks at one form of scientific communication as a descriptive indicator of the maturity of medical informatics as a discipline. Conference proceedings were selected because they represent one of the first means of communication within a discipline in a semiformal format. Findings confirm that conference papers report research, development, and application projects across a wide range of topics; identify a possible trend toward increased funding; and show widespread use of empirical and quantitative research and analytical techniques. Deficiencies in the conference papers are also discussed.