Summary
Background: In 1962, Methods of Information in Medicine (MIM ) began to publish papers on the methodology and scientific fundamentals of organizing,
representing, and analyzing data, information, and knowledge in biomedicine and health
care. Considered a companion journal, Applied Clinical Informatics (ACI ) was launched in 2009 with a mission to establish a platform that allows sharing
of knowledge between clinical medicine and health IT specialists as well as to bridge
gaps between visionary design and successful and pragmatic deployment of clinical
information systems. Both journals are official journals of the International Medical
Informatics Association.
Objectives: As a follow-up to prior work, we set out to explore congruencies and interdependencies
in publications of ACI and MIM . The objectives were to describe the major topics discussed in articles published
in ACI in 2014 and to determine if there was evidence that theory in 2014 MIM publications was informed by practice described in ACI publications in any year. We also set out to describe lessons learned in the context
of bridging informatics practice and theory and offer opinions on how ACI editorial policies could evolve to foster and improve such bridging.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational study and reviewed all articles published
in ACI during the calendar year 2014 (Volume 5) for their main theme, conclusions, and key
words. We then reviewed the citations of all MIM papers from 2014 to determine if there were references to ACI articles from any year. Lessons learned in the context of bridging informatics practice
and theory and opinions on ACI editorial policies were developed by consensus among the two authors.
Results: A total of 70 articles were published in ACI in 2014. Clinical decision support, clinical documentation, usability, Meaningful
Use, health information exchange, patient portals, and clinical research informatics
emerged as major themes. Only one MIM article from 2014 cited an ACI article. There are several lessons learned including the possibility that there may
not be direct links between MIM theory and ACI practice articles. ACI editorial policies will continue to evolve to reflect the breadth and depth of the
practice of clinical informatics and articles received for publication. Efforts to
encourage bridging of informatics practice and theory may be considered by the ACI editors.
Conclusions: The lack of direct links from informatics theory-based papers published in MIM in 2014 to papers published in ACI continues as was described for papers published during 2012 to 2013 in the two companion
journals. Thus, there is little evidence that theory in MIM has been informed by practice in ACI .
Keywords Clinical informatics - biomedical informatics - informatics practice - informatics
theory
