UPDATE: Call for Papers: The Electronic Health Record and Nursing

The Call for Papers is open for a special issue of the open access journal “Nursing Research and Practice” – the theme will be “The Electronic Health Record and Nursing: Trends, Issues and Challenges”. See
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/nrp/si/956501/cfp/
for full information. Manuscripts will be accepted until 14 October, 2012. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/

Lead Guest Editor Andre Kushniruk (School of Health Information Science, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada) and Guest Editors Hyeoun-Ae Park (College of Nursing Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea), Carola Hullin Lucay Cossio (IMIA LAC: Regional Federation of Health Informatics for Latin America and the Caribbean) and Elizabeth Borycki (School of Health Information Science and School of Nursing, University of Victoria) invite colleagues to contribute original research articles as well as review articles. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• The relation of nursing to electronic health records
• Technologies to support nursing in the electronic health record (e.g., clinical nursing guidelines)
• Educational tools for improving understanding and adoption of electronic records and related information technologies in nursing
• Nursing standards/terminologies as they relate to the electronic record
• Change management and strategies for implementing electronic records in nursing environments
• Emerging trends, issues, and challenges in implementing electronic health records for use by nurses

There are many reported difficulties and issues worldwide in implementing electronic health records (EHRs) so that they maximize their beneficial potential and minimize inadvertent negative efforts for both health professionals and patients. This special issue will examine trends, issues, and challenges emerging from implementation of electronic health records and related information technologies in nursing settings.

Informática en Salud 2013 – Havana, Cuba: 18-22 March, 2013

Submissions of abstracts and papers are open until October 30th, 2012 for Informática en Salud 2013.

The IX International Congress on Informatics for Health (el IX Congreso Internacional de Informática en Salud) will be held from March 18 -22, 2013 in Havana, Cuba. The conference will be part of the XV edition of the 2013 International Informatics Convention and Fair, which will be held at the Palace of Conventions in Havana and at the fairgrounds PABEXPO. There will also be a virtual congress from March 18th to April 18th, 2013.

See
http://www.informatica2013.sld.cu/index.php/informaticasalud/2013
for further information – you are able to toggle between Spanish and English versions of the page.

In addition, follow on Twitter @InfoSaludCuba and ‘like’ the Facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Informática-Salud-2013/291085964319142

Convention Deadlines:
Submissions of abstracts and papers: October 30th , 2012
Notification of acceptance of the papers: December 3rd, 2012

Under the central motto of “ICT for Health, a reality today, a chance for the future” this meeting of Informatics in Havana is open to all those interested to participate in technical scientific debates, exposition of projects and initiatives of the main topics in this congress. 2013 Informatics for Health will be space for scientific and academic exchange between professionals, scientists, engineers, businessmen, government representatives, international organizations, and general public interested in research, promote, analyze and learn about the progress of information technology, the telecommunications, electronics, medical equipment and automation in Cuba health sector and in the world.

The Cuban Society for Medical Informatics (SOCIM –
http://www.socim.sld.cu
  –
http://www.imia-medinfo.org/new2/node/68
) is a long-standing IMIA Member Society.

BIREME International Community of Practice: PAHO/WHO

The BIREME International Community of Practice, a virtual forum dedicated to strengthening the management of scientific and technical information in health sciences, was launched in August 2012 during a virtual seminar jointly organized by the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and the Ministry of Health of Brazil. Full information is available on the PAH/WHO website at
http://bit.ly/PoIhda
(Comunidade de Prática Internacional para apoiar o fortalecimento institucional da BIREME – in Spanish)

This International Community of Practice, led by the Area of Knowledge Management and Communications PAHO/WHO (KMC), BIREME, and the Ministry of Health of Brazil, host country of the Center, seeks, among other things, to support the production, dissemination, and use of scientific and technical information for the strengthening of primary health care systems in the Americas, bringing together the individual and collective knowledge in the countries and in specialized information networks.

This year, BIREME celebrates 46 years of existence and PAHO celebrates 110 years and is the oldest public health organization of the world. BIREME works with all of the countries of the American hemisphere to improve the health and the quality of the life of the people of the Americas and it acts as the Regional Office for the Americas of WHO.

Source: Thanks to Ana Lucia Ruggiero, PAH/WHO Knowledge Management and Communication KMC – Knowledge Sharing listserv.

VII Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires Conference of Health Informatics: 28-30 November, 2012

The Department of Health Informatics at Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires in Argentina is organizing the Seventh Conference of Health Information Systems (VII Jornadas Universitarias de Sistemas de Información en Salud). This will be held on November 28 – 30th, 2012.

Information on the event can be found on their newsletter at
http://campus.hospitalitaliano.org.ar/file.php/1/html/2012/infomed/noticias/2/index.html

Keynote speakers will include Charles Friedman, Director of the health informatics program at University of Michigan, USA; William Tierney, CEO of the Regenstrief Institute, USA; Lincoln de Assis Moura Jr, IMIA President-elect; Patricia Abbott, Associate Professor at University of Michigan’s School of Nursing. (More speaker information) The conference is organized together with HL7 Argentina.

Topics include:
• Security in Health Information Systems
• Digital Agendas in Latin America
• HL7 and its relationship with the National Digital Agendas
• Education in Health Informatics
• Clinical terminologies
• Implementations of Health Information Systems
• Open Source Tools in Clinical Information Systems
• Tracking of drugs in hospitals
• Mobile devices in Health care

The Conference is free, but will require registration (information will be available in the website). Participants from all over the world will have the possibility of joining the conference using the elluminate teleconference system. See also
http://www.hospitalitaliano.org.ar/infomed
for further information on the event and on other activities.

Follow the conference on Twitter with hashtag #HIBA2012. For more information about previous conference (available in Spanish). Click here 

IX International Congress on Informatics for Health – Havana, Cuba: 18-22 March, 2013

The IX International Congress on Informatics for Health (el IX Congreso Internacional de Informática en Salud) will be held from March 18 -22, 2013 in Havana, Cuba. The conference will be held as part of the XV edition of the 2013 International Informatics Convention and Fair, which will be held at the Palace of Conventions in Havana and at the fairgrounds PABEXPO. There will also be a virtual congress from March 18th to April 18th, 2013.

See
http://www.informatica2013.sld.cu/index.php/informaticasalud/2013
for further information – you are able to toggle between Spanish and English versions of the page.

Convention Deadlines:
Submissions of abstracts and papers: October 30th , 2012
Notification of acceptance of the papers: December 3rd, 2012

Under the central motto of “ICT for Health, a reality today, a chance for the future” this meeting of Informatics in Havana is open to all those interested to participate in technical scientific debates, exposition of projects and initiatives of the main topics in this congress. 2013 Informatics for Health will be space for scientific and academic exchange between professionals, scientists, engineers, businessmen, government representatives, international organizations, and general public interested in research, promote, analyze and learn about the progress of information technology, the telecommunications, electronics, medical equipment and automation in Cuba health sector and in the world.

The Cuban Society for Medical Informatics (SOCIM –
http://www.socim.sld.cu
  –
http://www.imia-medinfo.org/new2/node/68
) is a long-standing IMIA Member Society.

III International Symposium of Nursing and Informatics; March 16-17, Sao Paulo, Brazil

The III International Symposium of Nursing and Informatics (III Simpósio Internacional de Informática em Enfermagem) will take place in São Paulo, Brazil on 16-17 March, 2012. The event will be held at the Matsubara Hotel, Rua Coronel Oscar Porto, 836, Paraíso – São Paulo.

Information on the event (in Portuguese) is available at
http://www.sbis.org.br/site/site.dll/view?pagina=179
on the website of SBIS, the Sociedade Brasileira de Informática em Saúde (
http://www.sbis.org.br
).

Among the objectives of the event are: to promote technical and scientific update to generate and share information; to promote the development of informatics in nursing and telenursing in Brazil.

SBIS, the Sociedade Brasileira de Informática em Saúde, is an IMIA Member Society.

Medinfo2015 will be in …

As noted in the short report from the IMIA Board and GA meetings, the decision on the host/venue for Medinfo1015 has been made.

Two high quality bids were presented to the IMIA GA – one from the Brazilian Health Informatics Association (SBIS –
http://www.sbis.org.br/
) and one from the China Medical Informatics Association (CMIA –
http://www.cmia.info/
). Both bids were presented to the GA by teams from CMIA and SBIS. After discussion, a vote was taken among eligible GA members.

Medinfo2015 will be held in Sao Paolo, Brasil – in late August 2015. Further information will be provided at, and after, Medinfo103 (www.medinfo2013.dk)

Fifth Congress on Health Informatics Standards in Latin America – Montevideo, Uruguay: October 13-14, 2011

The Fifth Congress on Health Informatics Standards in Latin America takes place in Montevideo, Uruguay, on October 13th – 14th, 2011. Full information about the event can be found at:

http://www.sueiidiss.org


http://www.suis.org.uy

The event is organized by SUIS (Sociedad Uruguaya de Informática en la Salud –
http://www.suis.org.uy
) and SUEIIDISS (Sociedad Uruguaya de Estandarización, Intercambio e Integración de Datos e Información de Servicios de Salud –
http://www.sueiidiss.org).

SUIS is a Member Society of IMIA. We encourage all IMIA members to attend.

IMIA Board Meeting, Guadalajara, Mexico; Next Board/GA Meeting, Oslo, Norway

The IMIA Board met in Guadalajara, Mexico on 20 May 2011, following the successful INFOLAC2011 conference.

The next IMIA Board and General Assembly meetings will be held in Oslo, Norway on August 27 and 28, 2011 respectively, in conjunction with MIE2011 (www.mie2011.org).

IMIA Board and guests dinner (photo courtesy Jacob Hofdijk); Guadalajara Cathedral (photo courtesy Antoine Geissbuhler)

INFOLAC2011 – Day 1 Roundup

In addition to the keynote talks already reported in the previous post, a number of other internationally-recognised speakers presented at INFOLAC2011 in Guadalajara, Mexico. Some of the presentations were i English, while others were given in Spanish; simultaneous translation was provided for all presentations.

Ed Hammond, from Duke University, USA talked on “Supporting healthy independent living and medical management”. He began from the premise that currently over-65s are 12% of the US population ; by 2030, they will be 19%. This gives challenges, in particular that resources for caring for aging population will be inadequate; aging groups will saturate the healthcare system if we continue using the current healthcare model. In addition, those reaching 65 years old can expect to live another 25-40 years; what will they do with their time? People age differently – but the goal is of independent healthy living.

Ed believes that the focus should be on ‘the person’, and finds even the term ‘patient-centric’ to be inadequate. The hospital, doctor etc. are, or should be, ‘service components’ in supporting health, activity, quality of life, etc. He discussed physical communities, social networking to support interactions and community, and the possibilities of virtual reality to support virtual travel and education. Self-care, he believes, is the only way to deal with the issues – it is an affordable model to enhance healthy, independent living processes, but can be supported by real-time links to healthcare professionals to offer support. Feedback is a critical part of self-care. In closing, Ed asked how we define quality of life; it varies for different people, and probably changes over time. What defines ‘life worth living’? The challenges for realistic healthy independent living in ageing are to recognise limits – but also we need to explore how technology can help accomplish our goals.

Lyn Hanmer, from the South African Medical Research Council and IMIA Secretary, talked on “Criteria for evaluation of health information systems for low-resource settings”. She said that increasing use of computerised health information systems in low resource settings are a relative high proportion of total health budgets, and so in these countries and regions, there is even more need to make sure that they are doing what we want them to do efficiently and effectively. The context for Lyn’s talk is situations where there are limited or vulnerable resources – limited means distribution of resources can be variable, but generally quantities are not enough to meet defined system specs. Vulnerable means access to resources can be interrupted for a variety of reasons. Infrastructure issues may impact availability, as may lack of availability of skilled personnel, variability of funding (present and future) may impact long-term sustainability of systems.

She discussed multiple approaches to HIS development and maintenance – different development models may apply and vary by sector (commercial or public sector) – systems may be developed externally (for different environment) and imported – bespoke locally-developed systems are more likely to meet local requirements. Open source systems may also be used, but equally, may need localisation.  She noted that in terms of evaluation, there are multiple approaches and guidelines – GEP-HI and STARE-HI have been developed at least in part within IMIA. They are useful in planning, implementing and reporting on evaluation studies. Other examples cited were the DeLone and McLean (2003) model of IS success, which includes system use, user satisfaction and net benefits. Assessment of ‘fit’ between IS and the environment is in the ITPOSMO model (Heeks and colleagues on ‘design-reality gaps’) – the HOT-fit model  includes human, organisation and technology factors.

Hanmer (2009) has done work on a revised conceptual model (
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17911679
), resulting in a proposed set of criteria for evaluation: criteria looking at fit with environment and needs (eg are there assumptions in the design that do not match with the local environment); resource availability and allocation (inc. identifying points of vulnerability); and decision making and contracts (need to define policy and strategy to inform decision-making).

The challenges, Lyn summarised, include identification of the appropriate HIS; ensuring availability of resources on a sustained basis; empowering decision-makers; finding appropriate evaluation tools. Low resource settings require high quality HIS implementations – many solutions can be implemented locally.

Other speakers included:

• Yunkap Kwankam (ISfTeH) talking on organising the health profession in different countries;
• Otto Rienhoff talking on history of medical informatics in IMIA-LAC and elsewhere;
• Peter Murray (IMIA CEO) on aspects of social media and Web 2.0.

The day concluded with a Mexican dinner, accompanied by tequila and mariachi music, both of which are said to originate in the Guadalajara area.