The Origins of Informatics

M. F. Collen
1994 JAMIA Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association  
This article summarizes the origins of informatics, which is based on the science, engineering, and technology of computer hardware, software, and communications. In just four decades, from the 1950s to the 199Os, computer technology has progressed from slow, firstgeneration vacuum tubes, through the invention of the transistor and its incorporation into microprocessor chips, and ultimately, to fast, fourth-generation very-large-scale-integrated silicon chips. Programming has undergone a
more » ... l transformation, from cumbersome, first-generation, machine languages to efficient, fourth-generation application-oriented languages. Communication has evolved from simple copper wires to complex fiberoptic cables in computer-linked networks. The digital computer has profound implications for the development and practice of clinical medicine. n J Am Med Informatics Assoc. 1994;1:91-107. The increasing importance of computer applications to medicine should generate some curiosity as to the origins and the evolution of informatics--the science, engineering, and technology of computer hardware, software, and communications. Understanding the historical development of informatics technology can help to elucidate the relevance of informatics to medicine. This article briefly summarizes the history of that technology-digital computers, computer programming, and computer communications. Bruce Blum wrote that "In the early 1940s 'computer' was a job title. A person was given a calculator and a set of formulae and then called a computer."74 By the late 195Os, however, when an electronic device carried out the arithmetic functions of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, or the logical functions of "and," "or," and "not," the device was called a computer. A digital computer required a central processing unit with a primary or main memory to hold the data being processed, a program of instructions for processing the data; and circuitry to
doi:10.1136/jamia.1994.95236152 pmid:7719803 pmcid:PMC116189 fatcat:tb4zyqkskncu5opdutblapneje