Applications programming in a Health Sciences Computing center

Abstract

Establishing an applications programming staff, as an integral part of a division of Health Computer Sciences within a health sciences community, requires a balance of technical personnel, computer system configurations, and specialized professional health science expertise. The reasons for establishing and maintaining such a staff are as varied as the demands of the health sciences community. The fluctuations of grant awards and contracts, health care delivery analyses, goals, and research personnel continually test the stability of a functional computer science-health sciences applications programming staff. The methods and procedures by which the Division of Health Computer Sciences at the University of Minnesota has, and is, asymptotically approaching a robust balance as a functioning applications programming staff are briefly presented in this paper.