Edward J. Hinman Medical Informatics Collection

Medical informatics is the understanding and promoting of the effective organization, analysis, management, and use of information in the health field. Informatics views technology as an integral tool to help organize, analyze, manage, and use medical information. Throughout his career Edward Hinman has been active and influential personality within the medical informatics field, serving in various roles including president and board member for the societies and organizations comprising this collection: Society for Advanced Medical Systems; Alliance for Engineering in Medicine and Biology; Symposium on Computer Applications in Medical Care, Inc.; American Association for Medical Systems and Informatics; American Medical Informatics Association.

Edward John Hinman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on November 10, 1931. He received his Bachelor's from the University of Oklahoma in 1951, his Doctorate in medicine from Tulane University in 1955 and his Master in public health from Johns Hopkins in 1971.

In 1955 he started his career in the United States Public Health Service (PHS) as an intern at the PHS hospital in New Orleans. He followed his internship with an internal medicine residency at the Baltimore, Maryland PHS hospital from 1958 to 1961. In 1973 he served as Director of the special research and development project at the National Center for Health Service Research located in Rockville, Maryland. His final position, Assistant Surgeon General and Director of the division of hospitals and clinics, started the following year and lasted until his retirement from the PHS in 1978.

After retiring from the Public Health Service in 1978 Hinman became the CEO of the Group Health Association. In 1984 he served as the president of Risk Control Services of Washington until 1986. After his time with Risk Control Services he became the Medical Director of Prudential Care of Washington from 1986 to 1989 and later Regional Medical Director of Lincoln National Health Plan of Washington from 1990 to 1992. Since 1992 to the time of this sketch Hinman is currently serving as the Vice President of Medical Affairs for Total Health Inc. of Baltimore, Maryland.