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Analysing the Scientific Publications of Peter Reichertz: Reflections from the Perspective of Medical Informatics Knowledge Today

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  • Patient Facing Systems
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Abstract

Professor Peter L. Reichertz is one of the most significant pioneers in the field of medical informatics worldwide. In 1969, 50 years ago, he became Professor at the Hannover Medical School. On the occasion of this anniversary an attempt was made to report on the scientific work of Peter Reichertz and to reflect on this work in the light of medical informatics knowledge today. The aim of this study was to search publications listings in the Peter L. Reichertz Archive, in Pubmed/Medline, and in the Web of Science. As well as to analyse contents and communication approaches to help in classifying Peter Reichertz’s scientific publications. Three comprehensive publication lists were identified: the Print Bibliography (384 publications), the Disc Bibliography (285 publications) and the Selected Publications Bibliography (111 publications). Based on the last bibliography, a classification was built along the semantic dimensions of (1) major topics, (2) fields of publication, and (3) publication languages. Major contents of Peter Reichertz’s research in informatics were medical informatics as a field (including education), informatics applications in medicine and health care, and health information systems. Clear shifts over time were observed. To his research on informatics applications, in the 1970s health information systems was added as topic, which then became a major part of his research. While in the 1960s and earlier German was a major publication language, from the 1970s onwards this shifted to English as the major language. Peter Reichertz very early identified the potential of computers in medicine and health care. He did not just use information and communication technology and information processing methodology as if they were other technology, such as microscopes or ultrasonic devices, for improving diagnosis and therapy. He was visionary enough to very early see the revolutionary potential of informatics for biomedicine and health care, with consequential impact on research and education.

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Acknowledgements

The Peter L. Reichertz Archive at PLRI was a major important source for the studies presented here. It could be set up through the support of Rita Schulz, Medical School Hannover, who with other colleagues at MHH helped preserve the books, paper folders and many other objects of Peter Reichertz, and who in 2007, then as Deputy CIO of MHH, offered to transfer them to PLRI. The building-up of Peter L. Reichertz Archive at PLRI as well as the the scanning and verifying of the most important paper folders in this archive was done in 2007 and 2008 by Klaus-Hendrik Wolf, Ute Zeisberg and other members of PLRI. Klaus-Hendrik Wolf was fortunately still in 2019 able to read the disc from the 1980s, which contained the data for the Disc Bibliography. Ute Zeisberg helped me in comparing the various bibliographies and in verifying Table 3. From my predecessor at TU Braunschweig, Dietrich-Peter Pretschner, who was a close friend and colleague of Peter Reichertz, I also received folders and other objects, which he received from Peter Reichertz (including personal files from him relating to his professional career), with significant additional information on Prof. Reichertz. Last, but not least, Casimir Kulikowski, Rutgers University, New Jersey, kindly edited an earlier version of this manuscript. Through his edits he once again turned one of my texts into a much better readable English style. Finally, the comments of the three reviewers on the first version of the submitted manuscript were very helpful and lead to a substantial revision. My deep and cordial thanks go to all of them.

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  1. Peter L. Reichertz Institute for Medical Informatics, TU Braunschweig and Hannover Medical School, Muehlenpfordtstr. 23, 38106, Braunschweig, Germany

    Reinhold Haux

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This is a written version of a lecture, given on April 10, 2019, at a symposium in honour of Professor Reichertz at Hannover Medical School: The Peter L. Reichertz Symposium – 1969 to 2019: Jubilee Questions and Lessons Learned – as part of a Special Topic Conference on ICT for Health Science Research of the European Federation for Medical Informatics.

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Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

86 Publications of Prof. Reichertz from 1965 to 1987, listed in Gustav Wagner’s and Donald Lindberg’s Selected Bibliography, the Wagner-Lindberg Bibliography. (PDF 1109 kb)

ESM 2

44 Publications of Prof. Reichertz from 1967 to 1987, listed in Pubmed/Medline. (PDF 57 kb)

ESM 3

24 Publications of Prof. Reichertz from 1967 to 1987, listed in the Web of Science Core Collection. (PDF 180 kb)

ESM 4

Publications of Prof. Reichertz – the Print Bibliography with 384 manuscripts from 1965 to 1987. (PDF 28555 kb)

ESM 5

Publications of Prof. Reichertz – the Disc Bibliography with 285 manuscripts from 1957 to 1987. (PDF 252 kb)

ESM 6

Publications of Prof. Reichertz – the Selected Publications Bibliography with 111 manuscripts from 1965 to 1987. (PDF 665 kb)

ESM 7

Classified Publications of Prof. Reichertz from the Selected Publications Bibliography with 111 manuscripts from 1965 to 1987. (PDF 689 kb)

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Haux, R. Analysing the Scientific Publications of Peter Reichertz: Reflections from the Perspective of Medical Informatics Knowledge Today. J Med Syst 44, 23 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-019-1463-6

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