The UIC Department of Pathology believes that informatics is critical to the future of the practice of Pathology, which is why we are one of the few pathology departments in the country to have a Division of Informatics within our department.

Pathology is one of the first specialties of medicine to become involved with computers and informatics. The first reported use of computers in the clinical laboratory was in 1952. Telepathology was first demonstrated in Boston in 1968. By the 1970’s Laboratory Information Systems were common throughout clinical laboratories. By the 1990’s the first Division of Pathology Informatics and Pathology Informatics Fellowship were formed at the University of Pittsburgh. Pathology led the original attempt to create a formal subspecialty in informatics in the 2000’s, which paved the way for creation of National Board of Medical Specialty (NBMS) recognition of clinical informatics with a board examination jointly co-sponsored by the American Board of Pathology and American Board of Preventive Medicine.

From: A core curriculum for clinical fellowship training in pathology informatics. J Pathol Inform 2012;3:31