Information-based medicine

Augen, J., 2005, Bioinformatics in the post-genomic era Genome, transcriptome, proteome, and information-based medicine, Addison-Wesley (388 pages, paperback). 

ARRIVED AT LAST THE EARLY DAWN OF INFORMATION-BASED MEDICINE... 

Fictition perhaps, but this prognosis scenario (based loosely on a couple of Monty Python comedy sketches) is one that has been used in medical teaching because it validly illustrates several things. Records save lives. Information-based medicine is preventative medicine. Medical information is a matter of... 

The primary IT that the physician will interface with is clinical decision intelligence (introduced particularly in Chapter 8). The powers of definitions are in the eye of the beholder, and in the new emerging medicine, it is particularly problematic that no one has quite the same definition. But all are agreed that there is no point in having clinical data, in any form, if intelligent decisions in the patient s interest (or collective pubic interest) cannot be made from that data. Information-based medicine can only ever be as powerful as the tools to convert that information into knowledge, insight, decision, and action. To put it succinctly, information-based medicine must, by definition, include the capability to convert the information base to medicine, and this already hints that... 

EBM (evidence-based medicine) A relatively recent movement in medicine, starting with Archie Cochrane in 1972, and promoted by David Sackett and colleagues. It emphasizes the importance of objective use of best possible evidence in making medical decisions, as opposed to personal experience, anecdotal evidence, and so-called expert opinion. The motivation is to reduce the medical accident rate due to bad diagnoses and therapy decisions, and hence it is of considerable current interest. Information-based medicine may be considered EBM as assisted by IT (and it is now hard to imagine EBM without it). 

FROM DEFINING BIOINFORMATICS AND PHARMACOGENOMICS TO DEVELOPING INFORMATION-BASED MEDICINE AND PHARMACOTYPING IN HEALTH CARE... 

Figure 2-1. Pharmacotyping and information-based medicine in postgenomic drug delivery and health care (see the text for details).

Augen, J. (2004) Bioinformatics in the Post-Genome Era Genome, Transcriptome, Proteome and Information-based Medicine, Addison Wesley Professional, Boston, MA. 

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