The evolution of medical informatics in China: A retrospective study and lessons learned

Background: In contrast to China's giant health information technology (HIT) market and tremendous investments in hospital information systems the contributions of Chinese scholars in medical informatics to the global community are very limited. China would like to have a more important position in the global medical informatics community.

Objective: A better understanding of the differences between medical informatics research and education in China and the discipline that emerged abroad will better inform Chinese scholars to develop right strategies to advance the field in China and help identify an appropriate means to collaborate more closely with medical informatics scholars globally.

Method: For the first time, this paper divides the evolution of medical informatics in China into four stages based on changes in the core content of research, the educational orientation and other developmental characteristics. The four stages are infancy, incubation, primary establishment and formal establishment. This paper summarizes and reviews major supporting journals and publications, as well as major organizations. Finally, we analyze the main problems that exist in the current disciplinary development in China related to medical informatics research and education and offer suggestions for future improvement.

Conclusions: The evolution of medical informatics shows a strong and traditional concentration on medical library/bibliographic information rather than medical (hospital information or patient information) information. Misdirected-concentration, a lack of formal medical informatics trained teaching staff and mistakenly positioning medical informatics as an undergraduate discipline are some of the problems inhibiting the development of medical informatics in China. These lessons should be shared and learned for the global community.