Critical dimensions in medical informatics.

A typology of medical informatics applications is proposed around three dimensions: the dimension of care, the dimension of information and knowledge, and the aspects of the computerized society. These dimension can help both to evaluate application or research papers in the field or to derive long term goals for the discipline. In the first dimension medical informatics appears more as a technology driven by external forces such as the general progress of medicine or the integration of economical constraints in the choice of optimal procedures. It is argued that barriers to overcome as well as challenges for future research mainly remain in the two last dimensions.