OMIM is a continuation of Mendelian Inheritance in Man (MIM) (1), which was published through 12 editions between 1966 and 1998. Since its inception, it has been written and curated at Johns Hopkins University, first by Victor A. McKusick and since 2002 under the direction of Ada Hamosh. From the first edition, it was maintained as a computer-based resource. This digital format enabled the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) to use it as a test bed for full-text information retrieval. In 1987, the Welch Medical Library at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine made OMIM freely available on the internet. In 1995, OMIM was adapted for the World Wide Web by NCBI. In 2011, Johns Hopkins University sponsored the development of OMIM.org, a website that is optimized for easy retrieval and display of OMIM’s unique information even on tablets and mobile devices. A detailed description of the content scope and structure in OMIM.org is provided in the 2015 database article (2).
