The increased use of computers is a response to the considerable growth in information
in all fields of activities. Related to this, in the field of medicine a new component
appeared about 40 years ago: Medical Informatics. Its goals are to assist health care
professionals in the choice of data to manage and in the choice of applications of
such data. These possibilities for data management must be well understood and, related
to this, two major dangers must be emphasized. One concerns data security, and the
other concerns the processing of these data. This paper discusses these items and
warns of the inappropriate use of medical informatics.
Keywords:
Medical Informatics - Applications - Database Management Systems - Management Information
Systems
