Doody's Review Service
Reviewer: Elizabeth Connor, MLS, DM/AHIP(The Citadel)Description: Based on published accounts, not interviews, this volume in the Health Informatics Series traces the history of medical databases from 1950 to 2010.
Purpose: The work focuses on the collection, integration, and storage of other data "to support clinical patient care, or to support medical research, or support administrative functions, or public health objectives." It intentionally excludes discussion of the processing of radiologic or dermatologic images and analog signals such as electrocardiograms. It also makes a distinction among primary medical record databases, specialized medical databases (tumor registries, genetics databases such as Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man, and databases specific to various chronic diseases), and secondary medical research databases (translational research datasets that benefit clinical care).
Audience: Readers and collections that already have the author's A History of Medical Informatics in the United States 1950-1990 (American Medical Informatics Association, 1995) will want to purchase this one, too. It will be useful to librarians, educators, clinicians, and researchers working in a variety of medical settings.
Features: Each chapter includes a discussion of specific types of databases that concludes with a summary, the author's "personal view of the chapter's contents," and pertinent bibliographic references. For example, the chapter about medical bibliographic databases describes the progression from the Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office to MEDLARS to NCBI databases. The book includes both a subject index and author index.
Assessment: As the author is considered by many to be the "father of medical informatics," this book offers a logical and solid historical framework and unique viewpoint for understanding and appreciating the enormous strides that were made in that 60-year span.