There are several reasons to be interested in infectious disease informatics. First, it is of practical significance to understand how the technology revolution has been reshaping infectious disease research and management, as rapid advances in geno- associated technologies have changed the very nature of the questions we can ask. Second, the emerging evidence has confirmed that the application of information technologies in healthcare enhances our ability to deal with infectious diseases. Finally, the implementation of electronic health records has created new and exciting opportunities for secure, reliable and ethically sound clinical decision support and biosurveillance guided by the genomics of pathogens with epidemic potential. This volume addresses the growing need for the critical overview of recent developments in microbial genomics and biomedical informatics relevant to the control of infectious diseases. This field is rapidly expanding, and attracts a wide audience of clinicians, public health professionals, biomedical researchers and computer scientists who are fascinated by the complex puzzle of infectious disease. This book takes a multidisciplinary approach with a calculated move away from the traditional health informatics topics of computerized protocols for antibiotic p- scribing and pathology testing. Instead authors invite you to explore the emerging frontiers of bioinformatics-guided pathogen profiling, the system microbiolo- enabled intelligent design of new drugs and vaccines, and new ways of real-time biosurveillance and hospital infection control. Throughout the book, references are made to different products supplied by public sources and commercial vendors, but this is not an endorsement of these products or vendors.
