With the exception of some additions in Section 3.1 and minor changes,
the English edition of the "Medizinische Informatik" is a translation of
the German edition. Because there is frequently no one-to-one
correspondence between the Ger- man and the English terminology,
misinterpretations are possible. I have tried to avoid this situation as
far as possible. The main problem re- mains within the academic setting.
In recent years, the term 1 for.atics has become popular in Europe, but
is widely unknown in the United States. The field covers mostly what is
understood as computer science and in- formation science. The
corresponding term medical inforaatics, now used in the name of
international societies such as the "International Medical Informatics
Association", covers "medical computer science", "medical information
science", as well as "biomedical engineering" and has no de- finite
boundary to "biomathematics". The book has not been translated on a
professional basis in order to keep my own style, although there has
been assistance by Dr. S. Raymond, for which I am very grateful.
Dipl.-Phys. N. Osada has been of great help both by proof-reading and by
excellent support during preparation of the camera-ready manuscript.
Further valuable advice has been given by: A.W. Pratt, M.D.; M. Ebstein,
Ph.D.; M. Pacak, Ph.D.; G.S. Dunham; L.D. Nadel, Ph.D.; P.O. Miller.