Editorial: The health informatics series: Evolving with a new discipline

Abstract

A brief history of the book series launched by Springer-Verlag in 1988 as Computers in Healthcare stands as a case study of its role in the development of informatics in medicine. Renamed Health Informatics in 1998, the series grew to include 121 titles as of September 2022, covering topics from dental informatics to ethics, from human factors to mobile health. An analysis of three titles now in their fifth editions reveals the evolution of content in the core disciplines of nursing informatics and health information management. Shifts in topics in the second editions of two landmark titles chart the history of the field and provide a map to the development of the computer-based health record. Metrics on the publisher's website document the reach of the series, available as e-books or chapters. The growth of the series mirrors the evolution of health informatics as a discipline, and the contributions of authors and editors from around the world are evidence of international scope.

Keywords: Digital publishing; Evolving discipline; Health informatics; Medical informatics; Nursing informatics; Role of publications.