What Is Primary Care Informatics?
- Affiliation of the author: Primary Care Informatics, Department of Community Health Sciences, St. George's Hospital Medical School, London, UK
- Correspondence and reprints: Simon de Lusignan, BSc, MBBS, MSc, MRCGP, Primary Care Informatics, Department of Community Health Sciences, Hunter Wing, St. George's Hospital Medical School, London SW17 0RE, England; e-mail: <slusigna{at}sghms.ac.uk>
- Received 16 July 2002
- Accepted 23 February 2003
Abstract
Primary care informatics is an emerging academic discipline that remains undefined. The unique nature of primary care necessitates the development of its own informatics discipline. A definition of primary care informatics is proposed, which encompasses the distinctive nature of primary care. The core concepts and theory that should underpin it are described. Primary care informatics is defined as a science and as a subset of health informatics. The proposed definition is intended to focus the development of a generalizable core theory for this informatics subspecialty.
Footnotes
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The authors thank Dr Nikki Shaw and Professor Frank Sullivan for their helpful comments. The extensive and helpful feedback from reviewers and the JAMIA editorial office has substantially improved this paper. The authors also thank the members of the Primary Care Informatics group for their forbearance as this definition evolved. They are named at: <www.gpinformatics.org>.
