HEALTH AND BIOMEDICAL INFORMATICS

摘要

In the U.S. alone the number of people whose lives are cut short by preventable disease is more than 10 times the number lost to violent crimes like shootings and terrorism, though it's the crimes that are regularly splashed across the headlines.rnWhen we think of advances in medical technology we often imagine futuristic machines that readily diagnose and treat complicated diseases. But all the modern diagnostics, cutting-edge surgical techniques, and billion-dollar medications in the world are only so good. Knowing when and how to use them-both in general terms across the population and in very specific terms for each of us as individuals-requires lots of data. Collecting it and, more important, stitching it together into useful knowledge is the herculean task facing medical informatics.