A hypergraphic model of medical informatics: curriculum development guide.

Medical informatics, as a descriptive, scientific study, must be mathematically or theoretically described. Is it important to define a model for medical informatics? The answer is worth pursuing. The medical informatics profession stands to benefit three-fold: first, by clarifying the vagueness of the definition of medical informatics, secondly, by identifying the scope and content for educational programs, and, thirdly, by defining career opportunities for its graduates. Existing medical informatics curricula are not comparable. Consequently, the knowledge and skills of graduates from these programs are difficult to assess. The challenge is to promote academics that develops graduates for prospective employers to fulfill the criteria of the health care industry and, simultaneously, compete with computer science programs that produce information technology graduates. In order to meet this challenge, medical informatics programs must have unique curricula that distinguishes its graduates. The solution is to educate students in a comparable manner across the domain of medical informatics. This paper discusses a theoretical model for medical informatics.