Informatics

Informatics is the study of the processing, management, and use of information. It covers how information is gathered, stored, retrieved, communicated, and applied to problem solving. It is an interdisciplinary field that sits at the intersection of computing, cognitive science, library science, and domain sciences. Unlike the narrower computer science, which concentrates on computation and algorithms, informatics emphasizes information flow and human use, often focusing on system design, user interaction, and organizational context.

The term informatics emerged in the mid-20th century in Europe to describe information processing studies and later broadened to include medicine, biology, social sciences, and other domains. It encompasses both theoretical foundations and practical applications, from data models and databases to user interfaces and decision support systems.

Health informatics applies information systems to healthcare; biomedical informatics integrates clinical data with biological knowledge; bioinformatics deals with computational analysis of biological data. Geoinformatics deals with geographic information; chemoinformatics with chemical data; cognitive informatics with models of information processing in the mind; social informatics studies social aspects of information technologies. Information technology management and information systems disciplines focus on designing and implementing information systems in organizations.

Programs lead to bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in informatics or related fields. Research topics include data management, information retrieval, human-computer interaction, and data science methods, with emphasis on improving access to information, data quality, privacy, and ethics.