Informatics

Informatics studies how information is represented, processed, stored, and communicated, especially through computational systems. It connects information, people, and technology to understand and improve information practices.

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Information theory: The mathematical study of information, uncertainty, and reliable communication. It quantifies information and explains limits on representing and transmitting it.
Health informatics: The application of informatics to health care, public health, and biomedical research. It applies information methods to clinical records, care coordination, and health data.
Computer science: The study of computation, algorithms, and the design of computational systems. It overlaps with informatics but centers more directly on computation and its foundations.
Information retrieval: The process of finding relevant information from collections of documents or data. Retrieval systems determine which stored information becomes accessible in practice.
Data: Recorded observations or symbols that can be organized and interpreted as information. Informatics examines how data is represented, managed, and turned into meaningful information.
Bioinformatics: The use of computational methods to analyze biological data, especially molecular data. It turns large biological datasets into representations that support research and discovery.
Information science: The study of the collection, organization, retrieval, and use of information. It shares informatics’ concern with information while often emphasizing access and knowledge organization.
Data governance: The policies, roles, and standards that guide how data is managed and used. Information systems require decisions about responsibility, quality, access, and permitted use.
Algorithm: A finite, specified procedure for solving a problem or performing a computation. Algorithms describe the processing operations at the heart of computational information systems.
Medical informatics: The study of information and computation in medicine and clinical practice. It focuses informatics methods on medical knowledge, decisions, and workflows.