Cognitive Informatics is a burgeoning interdisciplinary domain comprising of the cognitive and information sciences that focuses on human information processing mechanisms and processes within the context of computing and computer applications . Based on a review of articles published in the Journal of Biomedical Informatics between January 2001 and March 2014 we identified 57 articles that focused on topics related to cognitive informatics . We found that while the acceptance of CI into the mainstream informatics research literature is relatively recent its impact has been significant from characterizing the limits of clinician problem solving and reasoning behavior to describing coordination and communication patterns of distributed clinical teams to developing sustainable and cognitively plausible interventions for supporting clinician activities . Additionally we found that most research contributions fell under the topics of decision making usability and distributed team activities with a focus on studying behavioral and cognitive aspects of clinical personnel as they performed their activities or interacted with health information systems . We summarize our findings within the context of the current areas of CI research future research directions and current and future challenges for CI researchers . We are at a turbulent yet exciting phase in healthcare turbulent as the transformations in healthcare practice have been driven by paradigmatic shift toward the use of health information technology both as a result of necessity and federal mandates exciting as such transformations have highlighted the central role of cognitive and behavioral sciences in developing usable systems that can provide high quality patient care . While there is a bright future in terms of opportunities for researchers and practitioners who seek to engage in cognitive science research it is also important to reflect on past research to understand the historical context and foundations of the development of cognitive research in biomedical informatics the theories constructs and frameworks that drive the current research and the potential directions for future research . Within this focus this special communication provides a broader context of the cognitive and behavioral research on HIT in biomedical informatics . In addition we have also created a virtual issue of the Journal of Biomedical Informatics that will provide a snapshot of the research that has been published in JBI pertaining to cognitive and social science research . Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary field that draws from psychology computer science linguistics philosophy and anthropology to understand human activities including reasoning decision making and problem solving . Principles from cognitive science have been applied for studying the usability of medical devices and interfaces developing training educational interventions and guidelines streamlining and improving workflow and clinical processes and for understanding the process of clinical judgment reasoning and decision making . In summary cognitive science provides a viable mechanism to inform our understanding in technology rich clinical environments and represents an important component of biomedical informatics . Additionally cognitive research has been a key to shaping and structuring the use of HIT adapting to the various needs of the clinical environment . Cognitive informatics by. 


Summary: Cognitive informatics CI research has its foundations in cognitive science. Transformations seen in CI in JBI reflect the changes seen broadly in the field of CI. Key topics include decision making usability comprehension workflow and errors. Recent developments toward use of applied cognition for usability and HCI studies. Future trends point toward consumer health tools and the use of mobile technology.