Imaging informatics

Imaging informatics, also known as radiology informatics or medical imaging informatics, is a subspecialty of biomedical informatics that aims to improve the efficiency, accuracy, usability and reliability of medical imaging services within the healthcare enterprise.[1] It is devoted to the study of how information about and contained within medical images is retrieved, analyzed, enhanced, and exchanged throughout the medical enterprise.

As radiology is an inherently data-intensive and technology-driven specialty of medicine, radiologists have become leaders in Imaging Informatics. However, with the proliferation of digitized images across the practice of medicine to include fields such as cardiology, ophthalmology, dermatology, surgery, gastroenterology, obstetrics, gynecology and pathology, the advances in Imaging Informatics are also being tested and applied in other areas of medicine. Various industry players and vendors involved with medical imaging, along with IT experts and other biomedical informatics professionals, are contributing and getting involved in this expanding field.

Imaging informatics exists at the intersection of several broad fields:

• biological science – includes bench sciences such as biochemistry, microbiology, physiology and genetics
• clinical services – includes the practice of medicine, bedside research, including outcomes and cost-effectiveness studies, and public health policy
• information science – deals with the acquisition, retrieval, cataloging, and archiving of information
• medical physics / biomedical engineering – entails the use of equipment and technology for a medical purpose
• cognitive science – studying human computer interactions, usability, and information visualization
• computer science – studying the use of computer algorithms for applications such as computer assisted diagnosis and computer vision