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Appl Clin Inform 2024; 15(05): 939-941
DOI: 10.1055/s-0044-1790553
Letter to the Editor

Informaticist or Informatician? A Literary Perspective

Andrew P. Bain
1   Clinical Informatics Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States
2   Department of Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States
,
Samuel A. McDonald
1   Clinical Informatics Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States
3   Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States
,
Christoph U. Lehmann
1   Clinical Informatics Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States
4   Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States
,
Robert W. Turer
1   Clinical Informatics Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States
3   Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States
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“What's in a name?” opines Juliet in Shakespeare's great tragedy of love amongst feuding families. To those marred by deep, yearning passion for data, two dueling names and titles exist: the informaticist and the informatician. Who is who? And who is right?

While some plant their flag firmly with one label, others may use the terms interchangeably, leaving those outside the specialty to wonder exactly what these titles represent. The common root refers to informatics, which has its own rich etymological history. Semi-analogous terms in French (informatique), German (informatik), and Russian (informatik) referring to information processing and information science appeared in the late 1960s.[1] Anderson, of Kings College London, was among the first to publish in English on medical informatics in 1974.[2] He later noted the origins to be French, inform from d'informatique and atic from d'automatique, covering both the nature of information and the automation of the data processing.[3] Slight differences exist in the professional titles' suffixes. -ician refers to a specialist or practitioner (e.g., beautician).[4] In stark contrast, -ist refers to one who specializes in a science or art or performs a specific action (e.g., machinist).[5] Where the dictionary cannot help us, we can turn to history. Let us examine the linguistic evolution of our titles.

In 1978, Dr. Charles Kleiber, an architect involved in the design of Swiss hospitals, envisioned a form of medicine, one that required “a new type of physician-informatician-statistician [who] might be trained, with the mission to manage and supervise the health status of the population.”[6] Written in French, his article appears to be the first record of the term informatician in PubMed-indexed manuscripts. Thirteen years later, the first published mention of informaticist arrived in 1991 from Clemmer and Gardner, as they describe the future of computing in the intensive care unit and the multidisciplinary approach needed between “medical informaticists, physicians, nurses, therapists, and administrators.”[7] In total, 456 manuscripts contain informatician at least once in the title or abstract compared to 214 manuscripts referencing informaticists.

As the field expanded in the 21st century, so too have these articles of self-reflection. Articles published referencing informaticists or informaticians increased by over 500%, increasing from 10 articles in the year 2000 to a peak of 54 articles published in 2020. With more than a decade head start in the medical lexicon, the informatician comfortably leads the last two decades ([Fig. 1]). However, 2024 looks to be a promising year for the informaticist, referenced 14 times this year, moving much closer to the informatician, with 16 manuscripts.

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Fig. 1 Number of articles per year (since 2000) where either informaticist or informatician is mentioned in the title or abstract. Articles considered for review were PubMed indexed with available text abstracts.

The informatics professional typically works within a specific clinical or professional domain and uses a paired title such as neuro-informaticist or surgeon informatician.[8] [9] It is unclear if these pairings are settled within the subspecialty based on tradition or linguistic preference. Upon manuscript review, the five most common titles preceding informaticist were nurse, clinical, biomedical, imaging, and physician, respectively. The five most common titles preceding informatician were health, medical, clinical, nurse, and biomedical, respectively.

When broadening our analysis to a more comprehensive publication database, the title gap widens. In Scopus-indexed articles, informatician appears in the title or abstract of 837 articles, compared to only 272 informaticist references. Even in 2024, the gap remains substantial in Scopus compared to PubMed (60 and 21, respectively). Similarly, the top title pairings were clinical informaticist and health informatician.

Professional societies, whether consciously or not, have made clear their positions, favoring informatician as the preferred professional designation. On the American Medical Informatics Association home webpage, the title of informatician appears four times.[10] Similarly, informatician appears six times on the landing page for the International Medical Informatics Association.[11] No mention of informaticist is found here.

Informatician is the older, more established, and more popular title for informatics professionals but the young informaticist appears close on its heels. Linguistically, little discrete difference appears to exist. The titles have even been used interchangeably.[12] [13] We may never know the “correct” term but there is no doubt that preferences, or even rivalries, will persist. If Juliet were matched not to Romeo but to a Clinical Informatics Fellowship, she may posit, “O, swear not by the moon, th'inconstant moon… an information scientist by any other name would be as data obsessed.” Whether you are an informaticist or an informatician, may you collaborate better than the Montagues and Capulets.

Protection of Human and Animal Subjects

The study was performed in compliance with the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki on Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects.




Publication History

Received: 17 June 2024

Accepted: 16 August 2024

Article published online:
06 November 2024

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