New York, NY (May 7, 2009) – Today’s fast-changing medical environment requires health information professionals to fully grasp the relationship between the health sciences and information technology. Health Informatics for Medical Librarians, to be released by Neal-Schuman Publishers on June 1, 2009, is a complete introduction to health informatics, a rapidly emerging discipline that is essential to any librarian responsible for dispensing high-quality, reliable healthcare information. Co-published by the Medical Library Association, this new resource provides the core knowledge and basic tools to help librarians and LIS students play a key role in improving healthcare.

Authors and influential educators Ana D. Cleveland and Donald B. Cleveland present a comprehensive overview of the health informatics revolution. Divided into two parts, the book covers the definition of health informatics and its role in modern healthcare as well as the principal aspects, procedures, and practices in the field. Each chapter features an “Informatics in Action” boxed feature with a problem scenario and demonstration of how health informatics concepts contributed to the solution. Readers will also find comprehensive references and a glossary of essential terms.
Part I: Understanding Health Informatics first defines the nature of health informatics as both a discipline and a profession, and explains the vital role played by new and developing health information technology. There is a detailed description of today’s healthcare environment and infrastructure, as well as a guide to a variety of healthcare professions and their individual roles and duties. The authors explain the ways in which informatics is presently impacting modern healthcare, and discuss all of the major specialty areas in health informatics, including nursing, pharmaceutical, dental, public health, hospital, and veterinary informatics. Part I concludes with an exploration into medical librarianship and the librarian’s potential role in health informatics.

Each chapter in Part II: Mastering Health Informatics outlines a specific facet of health informatics. Medical knowledge organization covers important medical terminology, ontologies, classification systems, and literature, and is followed by a chapter on health information technology that details medical database management, networking, the internet, health science artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality, and connectivity. The fundamentals of electronic health records are covered next, followed by a chapter that introduces and analyzes the major types of healthcare information management systems. The final chapters in Part II discuss medical imaging, ethical and legal issues in health informatics, and bioinformatics and genomic medicine. The book concludes with a summary of research, education and career opportunities, and insight into future trends, advances, and specialties.

Written specifically for information professionals, Health Informatics for Medical Librarians is both an authoritative resource for medical libraries and an ideal introductory textbook for health informatics, medical librarianship, and medical digital imaging courses.

Health Informatics for Medical Librarians
978-1-55570-627-2. 2009. 6 x 9. 300 pp. $95.00

About the Authors
Dr. Ana D. Cleveland is currently the Director of the Health Informatics Program at the University of North Texas and has served as a consultant to the National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, Medical Library Association, Organization of American States, among others. She is the winner of the Lucretia W. McClure Excellence in Education Award from the Medical Library Association.
Donald B. Cleveland is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of North Texas. He has served as a consultant to a number of governmental agencies and private organizations, including National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, World Health Organization, Cleveland Foundation, American Heart Association, among others, and has published a book on the brain for young adults.


About Neal-Schuman Publishers and the Medical Library Association
Neal-Schuman Publishers is the leading provider of library management, Internet, and information technology resources, and is the Medical Library Association’s co-publisher. Founded in 1976, Neal-Schuman Publishers is based in New York City with offices in London, UK. The Medical Library Association, founded in 1898, is an educational organization of more than 1,100 institutions and 3,600 individual members in the health sciences information field committed to educating health information professionals, supporting health information research, and working to ensure that the best health information is available to all.


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