45 certainty about Federal policy concern the University of Alabama cardiac in ing the support of training contribute tensive care monitoring system on "ob to these difficulties. The problems are solete 1800 computers." Another re too broad and too complex to address sponded most efficaciously pointing out here. They are difficult for both aca that it is too bad that people lose sight of demia and government, and warrant the fact that a system on which a pro the active concern of the entire research gram is developed will always be able community. to do the job; change is not indicated Dr. Robert Macey introduced to the until the system ceases to be appropri ate. conference the exciting world of model development describing an application In another vein, the question opens to the area of membrane transport. The up a wide range of problems that can be discussion of his paper exposed the prob summarized as problems in the diffusion lern the modeler has of gaining ac of computer-based technology. At this ceptance of his particular approach, but juncture biomedical computing joins all mainly it provided a taste of the intellec the rest of biomedicine. The problems of tual excitement that modeling generates diffusion of advances in health research, among both doers and observers.

Winner of the Computer History Museum Prize of the Special Interest Group: Computers, Information, and Society Imagine biology and medicine today without computers. What would laboratory work be like if electronic databases and statistical software did not exist? Would disciplines like genomics even be feasible if we lacked the means to manage and manipulate huge volumes of digital data? How would patients fare in a world absent CT scans, programmable pacemakers, and computerized medical records? Today, computers are a critical component of almost all research in biology and medicine. Yet, just fifty years ago, the study of life was by far the least digitized field of science, its living subject matter thought too complex and dynamic to be meaningfully analyzed by logic-driven computers. In this long-overdue study, historian Joseph November explores the early attempts, in the 1950s and 1960s, to computerize biomedical research in the United States. Computers and biomedical research are now so intimately connected that it is difficult to imagine when such critical work was offline. Biomedical Computing transports readers back to such a time and investigates how computers first appeared in the research lab and doctor's office. November examines the conditions that made possible the computerization of biology—including strong technological, institutional, and political support from the National Institutes of Health—and shows not only how digital technology transformed the life sciences but also how the intersection of the two led to important developments in computer architecture and software design. The history of this phenomenon has been only vaguely understood. November's thoroughly researched and lively study makes clear for readers the motives behind computerizing the study of life and how that technology profoundly affects biomedical research today.

Advances in computer science and technology and in biology over the last several years have opened up the possibility for computing to help answer fundamental questions in biology and for biology to help with new approaches to computing. Making the most of the research opportunities at the interface of computing and biology requires the active participation of people from both fields. While past attempts have been made in this direction, circumstances today appear to be much more favorable for progress. To help take advantage of these opportunities, this study was requested of the NRC by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Energy. The report provides the basis for establishing cross-disciplinary collaboration between biology and computing including an analysis of potential impediments and strategies for overcoming them. The report also presents a wealth of examples that should encourage students in the biological sciences to look for ways to enable them to be more effective users of computing in their studies.

V.1: Computers and mathematics in the life sciences. Computer simulation of life processes. Computer analysis of specific biosystems. Computer uses in neurophysiology. Computers in clinical medicine. Computation in psychology and psychiatry. v.2: Computer technology in the life sciences. Programming for the life sciences research. Biological and physiological applications of computers. Computers in hospital automation. Computers in psychology and psychiatry. v.3: Computers and the delivery of medical care. On-line data acquisition in the clinical laboratory. Automated multiaccess system for clinical work. An on-line graphic inquiry system for analysis of tumor registry data. Cell identification and sorting. Use of a high-speed digital computer in processing radioisotope scintiscan matrices. Some data transformations useful in electrocardiography. Computation for quantitative on-line measurements in an intensive care ward. Computer-based patient monitoring. The comprehensive patient-monitoring concept.

This book covers several of the statistical concepts and data analytic skills needed to succeed in data-driven life science research. The authors proceed from relatively basic concepts related to computed p-values to advanced topics related to analyzing highthroughput data. They include the R code that performs this analysis and connect the lines of code to the statistical and mathematical concepts explained.