A stimulus to define informatics and health information technology

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Despite the growing interest by leaders, policy makers, and others, the terminology of health information technology as well as biomedical and health informatics is poorly understood and not even agreed upon by academics and professionals in the field.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The paper, presented as a Debate to encourage further discussion and disagreement, provides definitions of the major terminology used in biomedical and health informatics and health information technology. For informatics, it focuses on the words that modify the term as well as individuals who practice the discipline. Other categories of related terms are covered as well, from the associated disciplines of computer science, information technolog and health information management to the major application categories of applications used. The discussion closes with a classification of individuals who work in the largest segment of the field, namely clinical informatics.</p> <p>Summary</p> <p>The goal of presenting in Debate format is to provide a starting point for discussion to reach a documented consensus on the definition and use of these terms.</p

Publication trends in the medical informatics literature: 20 years of "Medical Informatics" in MeSH

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The purpose of this study is to identify publication output, and research areas, as well as descriptively and quantitatively characterize the field of medical informatics through publication trend analysis over a twenty year period (1987–2006).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A bibliometric analysis of medical informatics citations indexed in Medline was performed using publication trends, journal frequency, impact factors, MeSH term frequencies and characteristics of citations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were 77,023 medical informatics articles published during this 20 year period in 4,644 unique journals. The average annual article publication growth rate was 12%. The 50 identified medical informatics MeSH terms are rarely assigned together to the same document and are almost exclusively paired with a non-medical informatics MeSH term, suggesting a strong interdisciplinary trend. Trends in citations, journals, and MeSH categories of medical informatics output for the 20-year period are summarized. Average impact factor scores and weighted average impact factor scores increased over the 20-year period with two notable growth periods.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There is a steadily growing presence and increasing visibility of medical informatics literature over the years. Patterns in research output that seem to characterize the historic trends and current components of the field of medical informatics suggest it may be a maturing discipline, and highlight specific journals in which the medical informatics literature appears most frequently, including general medical journals as well as informatics-specific journals.</p

Genes and behavior in preschool children: The relation between dopamine genotype and latent executive control

Objective: Dopaminergic neurotransmission is implicated in the executive control of cognition and behavior (Braver & Cohen, 2000). Presence or absence of particular dopamine gene alleles relates to executive control performance (Casey, 2002; Roesch-Ely, 2005) and to attention problems and ADHD (Durston, 2005; Schmidt, 2001). The present study examined the relation between dopamine genotype and executive control in normally-developing preschool children. Participants and Methods: The sample included 133 children (66 girls; mean age 4 years, range 2;2-6 years). Children completed a battery of executive control tasks, and were genotyped for 4 dopamine genes: the dopamine receptors DRD2 and DRD4, the dopamine transporter DAT, and the enzyme COMT. Based on a literature review, for each gene, children were classified as carrying the high- or low-risk allele, and a risk score was constructed by summing the number of high-risk alleles (range 0-4). In Mplus, structure equation modeling was used to examine the relation between the genetic risk score and a latent factor representing the executive control battery, controlling for age. Results: The SEM model evidenced good fit to the data (chisquare(43)=43.15, p=.46). Age had a strong positive relationship with executive control, and higher risk scores for dopamine genotype were associated with lower executive control performance (standardized regression coefficients=.76 and -.10, respectively). Conclusions: Dopamine genotype is correlated with executive control performance, perhaps reflecting differences in dopamine availability and efficiency of neurotransmission related to different dopamine alleles. Given that executive control problems are implicated in ADHD (Nigg, 2005), these findings may shed light on how genetic risk contributes to behavioral problems

Nonthermal Melting of a Charge Density Wave in TiSe2

We use time-resolved optical reflectivity and x-ray diffraction with femtosecond resolution to study the dynamics of the structural order parameter of the charge density wave phase in TiSe2. We find that the energy density required to melt the charge density wave nonthermally is substantially lower than that required for thermal suppression and is comparable to the charge density wave condensation energy. This observation, together with the fact that the structural dynamics take place on an extremely fast time scale, supports the exciton condensation mechanism for the charge density wave in TiSe2