The formal charter for the BISTI Consortium was transmitted in a letter dated June 30, 2000, from Dr. Ruth L. Kirschstein, Acting Director of the NIH, to the Directors of the NIH Institutes, Centers, and Division. The text of that letter follows:

As computational capabilities and resources continue to develop, the use of computer science and technology by the biomedical community is increasing. Biology and medicine are moving from bench-based to computer-based sciences as models replace some experiments and complement others. The intellectual fusion of biomedicine and computer science and technology offers substantial benefits to all NIH institutes and centers in support of their general mission of improving the quality of the nation's health by increasing biological knowledge. The Biomedical Information Science and Technology Initiative (BISTI) at the NIH is aimed at maximizing our opportunities to benefit from the use of computer science and technology to address problems in biology and medicine.

Recognizing the potential benefits that can be realized from applying and advancing the field of biomedical computing, I am establishing a NIH BISTI Consortium (BISTIC) to serve as a focus for biomedical computing issues and to implement the recommendations contained in the April 2000 report of the BISTI Implementation Committee. The Consortium will be modeled after but distinct from the Bioengineering Consortium at the NIH. BISTIC will be initially chaired by Dr. Wendy Baldwin, Deputy Director of Extramural Research, and will transition into the Office of Bioengineering, Bioimaging, and Bioinformatics when a director is on board.

BISTI Consortium Meetings will identify major bioinformatics issues, future needs and directions, and research and training programs necessary to effectively apply biomedical computing to NIH-supported research. Interagency collaboration in bioinformatics may be encouraged by inviting representatives of other Federal agencies to serve as ex-officio members.

I want to thank you for identifying your BISTIC representatives and hope that they will be helpful in the search for the Director of the Office of Bioengineering, Bioimaging, and Bioinformatics.