Principles of Biomedical Informatics [Hardcover]

Ira J. Kalet PhD (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0123694388 | ISBN-13: 978-0123694386 | Publication Date: October 15, 2008 | Edition: 1

This book provides a foundation for understanding the fundamentals of biomedical informatics, which deals with the storage, retrieval, and use of biomedical data for biological problem solving and medical decision making. It covers the application of these principles to the three main biomedical domains of basic biology, clinical medicine, and public health. The author offers a coherent summary, focusing on the three core concept areas of biomedical data and knowledge representation, biomedical information access, biomedical decision making, and information and technology use in biomedical contexts.

* Develops principles and methods for representing biomedical data, using information in context and in decision making, and accessing information to assist the medical community in using data to its full potential

* Provides a series of principles for expressing biomedical data and ideas in a computable form to integrate biological, clinical, and public health applications

* Includes a discussion of user interfaces, interactive graphics, and knowledge resources and reference material on programming languages to provide medical informatics programmers with the technical tools to develop systems

Product Details

• Hardcover: 611 pages
• Publisher: Academic Press; 1 edition (October 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0123694388
• ISBN-13: 978-0123694386
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #712,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #76 in Books > Medical Books > Medical Informatics
  • #98 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Bioinformatics

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost perfect -, November 8, 2010

By 

MedIT - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Principles of Biomedical Informatics (Hardcover)

This is an *excellent* book. I read it enthusiastically and I'm glad that it was available for me to do so. I think it fills a unique niche in the informatics book market in two ways:
- it is a book with significant attention to clinical informatics that has a strong computer science angle.
- it is an informatics "monograph"

While informatics is often described as the intersection between something like computer science, life science/medicine and library science books rarely position themselves squarely at this intersection. I have found that it is easier to find bioinformatics books that have a strong computer science angle than it is to find clinical informatics books with a strong CS/implementation angle. This book is the exception to that rule. It has an unabashedly serious approach to the computing inherent in clinical informatics (one should take author's choice of Lisp as telling) and a clinical focus. The treatment of library science topics, while less rigorous, is present and credible.

Unlike the standard textbooks in the area (ex: Shortliffe) it is not an edited volume; rather, it hangs together page after page as a single work by a single author. Because it has the hand of an individual it a much more pleasant book to read from cover-to-cover.

The physical book is very appealing. The pager is glossy and thick, the binding is substantial, the dimensions are pleasant, the figures are clear, and the typesetting (as with all LaTeX books) beautiful. Unfortunately unlike most LaTeX books it is hard to read. While the pages look wonderful I found that function was sacrificed in the process. The vertical spacing is cramped, the margins are small, and the lines are long. This makes the going slow and difficult which detracts from an otherwise excellent book. If it was 50 pages longer with a bit more generous white space the book would be a complete home run.

In short, I have nothing but positive things to say about the content of this book and mixed emotions about the physical book. I would suggest that the ideal reader has some background in informatics. For total novices the larger edited volumes are a better starting point. Additionally, while a reasonable introduction to Lisp is provided some background knowledge of the language is helpful.

If you care about informatics, have a soft spot for Lisp and want to really hold the field in your hands this is a book that cannot be overlooked.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what's needed, May 21, 2009

By 

H. Lehmann (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Principles of Biomedical Informatics (Hardcover)

I have been teaching informatics for many years and found myself having to create lectures to provide deeper thinking skills about the contents of the field, without an organized text to support those topics. Every topic that informatics students should know is discussed in this text, examined from a deep perspective, and even accompanied by programming code that implements the idea. The programming language is Lisp. This is a language that is not used in most medical informatics production environments (like EHR vendors), but in fact represents the thought underlying most informatics applications. Read the book to be smarter. If you're a boundary-spanning informatician, you'll figure out how to communicate with folks who don't think the Lisp way.