Global Telehealth 2015 Conference – Toronto, Canada; 29-30 May, 2015

The 4th International Conference on Global Telehealth (GT2015) will be held on May 29-30, 2015 at the Delta Toronto Hotel, 75 Lower Simcoe Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Full information is on the event website at www.GT2015.org

The theme for GT2015 is “Serving the Underserved: Integrating technology and information for better healthcare”. COACH: Canada’s Health Informatics Association is delighted to be hosting Global Telehealth 2015, an international scientific conference covering the full breadth of  telehealth, mobile health and virtual health. It consists of 50+ scientific and applied paper presentations that have been submitted from more than 25 countries. Keynote speakers include Dr. Najeeb Al-Shorbaji, Director, Knowledge, Ethics & Research, World Health Organization; Dr. Alain B. Labrique, Founding director, Johns Hopkins University Global mHealth Initiative; and Dr. Ivar Mendez, Fred H. Wigmore Professor of Surgery & Chairman, Department of Surgery, University of Saskatchewan , and Unified Head of Surgery of the Province of Saskatchewan.

IMIA is pleased to be an Endorser of the event.

Registration is open, and the early bird rate end on 07 April:

GT2015 Early Bird Full Conference $599.00 (Ends April 7, 2015)
GT2015 Full Conference $749.00 (As of April 8, 2015)
GT2015 One Day $425.00
GT2015 Full Conference Group Rate $1499.00 (3 attendees – Ends April 7, 2015)

Conference flyer (PDF download)

The programme is at http://www.coachorg.com/en/newsandevents/GT-2015-Program.asp

 

e-Health 2015 in Toronto, Canada: 31 May – 03 June, 2015

COACH (http://www.coachorg.com), IMIA’s Member Society in Canada, together with Canada Health Infoway and CIHI-ICIS, will be hosting the forthcoming e-Health 2015 Conference, to be held from 31 May to 03 June, 2015 at the at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto ON, Canada. e-Health 2015 is Canada’s only national e-health conference and tradeshow, and provides education and networking opportunities for the telehealth and informatics communities.

Registration will open in January 2015. Full information on keynote speakers, registration, hotels, etc. is available at http://www.e-healthconference.com

ICANN and Health Domains – Further Request for Urgent Action, Thurs. 16 October

We share this urgent call for action on the issue of the new .health gTLD (and other health gTLDs). IMIA has been engaged in ongoing activities on the topics, together with other organisations. We ask that colleagues try to support the call for action, and also that they share this call with other colleagues.

The full text of the call for action can be found at http://eepurl.com/5Hxn9 and can be shared with others. It also gives background information.

Many people and organisations have expressed concern about ICANN’s handling of the allocation of the .health gTLD without sufficient public interest safeguards. A summary of issues is on the WHO website at http://www.who.int/ehealth/programmes/governance/en/

You can make a difference by directly engaging in ICANN’s policy processes via an online public forum this THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16 – 14:00-17:00PM PDT.  Participation is easy and will not take much of your time: All you have to do is visit the following URL (http://la51.icann.org/en/schedule/thu-public-forum), and then click the “Virtual Meeting Room Stream Live” link, click the option to participate as a guest, and you will be entered into an adobe connect chat room where you can participate and voice your concerns. Or send comments to engagement@icann.org and ask that comments be included in the public interest session.

Call for papers: SACJ Special Issue focusing on eHealth

Dr. Nicky Mostert-Phipps, from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa writes to draw your attention to the Call for Papers for a Special Issue of the South African Computer Journal (SACJ – http://sacj.cs.uct.ac.za) focusing on “eHealth: Enabling a long and healthy life for all South Africans”. The deadline for article submission is 12 January, 2015. Download PDF version of Call.

For this special issue on eHealth, the Guest Editors (Nicky Mostert-Phipps, Graham Wright and Anthony Maeder) invite authors to submit articles that focus on the use of ICTs in the promotion, support, and advancement of healthcare in South Africa. Articles will be selected through a double blind peer review process. Please contact any of the guest editors if you would like to clarify the scope of your article before submission.

The South African Department of Health (NDoH) released the country’s first eHealth strategy in 2012 with the aim of supporting the strategic objectives of the NDoH in a way that is comprehensive, pragmatic and innovative. The vision and mission of this strategy is to enable a long and healthy life for all South Africans through the establishment of eHealth as an integral part of the transformation and improvement of healthcare services in South Africa [1]. eHealth is broadly defined as the use of various Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for health [2]. This includes, but is not limited to, the use of ICTs for conducting research, treating patients, educating the workforce, tracking diseases, monitoring public health, and so forth. This broad domain includes fields such as telemedicine, mHealth, consumer health informatics, electronic medical record systems, health information systems, and so forth.

Articles must follow the SACJ formatting guidelines available at: http://sacj.cs.uct.ac.za/index.php/sacj/about/submissions#authorGuidelines

Final articles should be uploaded via the SACJ Journal website at http://sacj.cs.uct.ac.za/ (follow link from home page for ‘Submit Paper’).

Deadlines

Article submissions due: 12 January 2015.
Review outcomes: Communicated to authors by 28 February 2015.
Final articles due: 16 March 2015.
Publication of this eHealth special issue is planned for June 2015.

About SACJ

The South African Computer Journal is an official publication of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists, and is accredited by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training. It is an open access journal, meaning reading an article is free of charge. Information related to publication charges are available at http://sacj.cs.uct.ac.za/index.php/sacj/announcement/view/3

Guest Editors

Nicky Mostert-Phipps, School of Information and Communication Technology, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa (nicky.mostert@nmmu.ac.za)
Graham Wright, Centre for Health Informatics Research and Development, University of Fort Hare, South Africa (profwright@gmail.com)
Anthony Maeder, School of Computing, Engineering, and Mathematics, University of Western Sydney, Australia (A.Maeder@uws.edu.au)

References

[1] National Department of Health, “eHealth Stategy South Africa, 2012 – 2017”, National Department of Health, 2012.
[2] World Health Organization, “eHealth”, [Online]. Available: http://www.who.int/topics/ehealth/en/. [Accessed 29 August 2014].

Global Telehealth 2015 Conference – Call for Papers

Don Newsham, Chair of GT2015 and CEO of COACH: Canada’s Health Informatics Association (http://www.coachorg.com), writes:

Greetings Colleagues, Friends and Members of the Global Tele, Mobile and Virtual Health Community. COACH is pleased to announce the Call for Papers for GT2015 (www.GT2015.org), the 4th such conference, open to all academic, healthcare, health informatics and telehealth professionals from Canada and around the world.   We encourage your research, study and leading papers to be submitted for acceptance and presentation at this international conference, to be held on May 29-30, 2015 in Toronto.

On behalf of Conference Co-Chairs Jennifer Zelmer and Kendall Ho, we would welcome you to Canada and to this special conference with the theme Serving the Underserved: Integrating Technology and Information for Better Healthcare.  Bring your study and research findings, present and network with your Canadian and international colleagues, get published and Medline indexed in the IOS Press series Studies in Health Technology and Informatics and be a part of the innovation, evolution and development of telehealth, mobile health and virtual health, all for the betterment of our patient populations in every community and region.

We welcome your papers, your attendance and interest – and plan to stay for the eHealth 2015 conference (www.ehealthconference.com) starting the day after GT2015 (31 May – 03 June) , and also in Toronto.

Full information on the GT2015 Call is at www.GT2015.org – submission deadline for Full and Short Papers is December 1, 2014. The PDF file here also gives further detail on important dates. Papers are invited under three guided themes: cultural and socio-economic factors; latest, cutting-edge technology; and extending access.

 

19th HISI Annual Conference & Scientific Symposium 19-20 November 2014; Dublin Castle, Ireland

The 19th HISI Annual Conference 
& Scientific Symposium will be held on 19-20 November, 2014 at the Dublin Castle Conference Centre, Dublin, Ireland. The event is organised by the Healthcare Informatics Society of Ireland (www.hisi.ie), and IMIA Member Society. The theme will be “eHealth … what it means for patients, clinicians, industry, government and academia”, and the event will feature keynote speakers, academic paper and poster sessions, and workshops.

Full details as they become available will be at http://hisi.ie/conference

20% off for earlybird delegate registration for the month of August. You can register now at hisi.ie/conference

The Annual HISI Conference and Scientific Symposium is designed for everyone involved in the design, management and delivery of healthcare, both clinically and from an IT perspective. The agenda will focus on providing two days of stimulating insights, ideas and analyses on how technology is changing healthcare, and applying its uses for the enhancement of service delivery and patient care. If you would like the opportunity to present at next November’s HISI Conference and Scientific Symposium – and have something to contribute on topics such as Electronic Health Records (EHRs), ePrescribing, telehealth and telemedicine, automated pricing, performance, billing and claims management – please get in touch at info[at]hisi.ie.

GT2015 – 4th Global Telehealth Conference for Peer Reviewed & Applied Learning

Don Newsham, CEO of COACH: Canada’s Health Informatics Association (www.coachorg.com) draws attention, on behalf of Conference Co-Chairs Jennifer Zelmer and Kendall Ho and the organizing team, to the forthcoming Global Telehealth 2015 (GT2015) conference. The call for papers will be launched shortly. This global conference on telehealth, mobile health and virtual health will be linked closely with COACH’s major annual conference, eHealth2015.

GT2015 will be held on 29-30 May, 2015 in Toronto, Canada – see http://coachorg.com/en/newsandevents/GT2015.asp eHealth2015 will start on 31 May, 2015 in Toronto, Canada. Further information can be obtained via the website, and/or from Andrea Freitas (afreitas[at]baseconsulting.ca), the primary contact from the organizing team at COACH for GT2015.

 

 

 

e-Health 2014 (Vancouver, Canada) – Early Bird Registration Ends 04 April

The e-Health 2014 Conference will be taking place in Vancouver from June 1-4, 2014 at the Vancouver Convention Centre, Vancouver BC, Canada – see http://www.e-healthconference.com for full information.

The early bird registration rate ends on 04 April, 2014 at 11:59pm PST. Information on registration rates is at http://www.e-healthconference.com/registration

Use the e-Health 2014 Conference hashtag: #ehealth14

Report from 2014 WHO Forum on eHealth Standardization and Interoperability

The Joint Inter-Ministerial Policy Dialogue on eHealth Standardization and Second WHO Forum on eHealth Standardization and Interoperability was hosted by WHO on 10 and 11 February, 2014 at WHO headquarters in Geneva. Participants of the Forum included representatives from WHO Member States, health data standards development organizations (SDOs), academic and research institutions, implementing partners, the donor community, and subject matter experts concerned with development, adoption and implementation of health data standards at national and sub-national level. IMIA and its members were well-represented at this event; participants included IMIA Past President Antoine Geissbuhler, IMIA CEO Peter Murray, and colleagues from COACH (Don Newsham), AMIA (Chris Chute, Charles Jaffe), IAMI India (Jai Ganesh Udayasankaran), TMIA Thailand (Boonchai Kijsanayotin) [note: participants were not necessarily present as formal representatives of these organisations].

The Final Report of the meeting is available on the WHO website (http://www.who.int/entity/ehealth/events/final_forum_report.pdf?ua=1)  In line with the recommendations of the First Forum on eHealth Standardization and Interoperability held in December 2012 (http://www.who.int/ehealth/forum2012/en/) and the recent Resolution WHA66.24, the objectives of the Second Forum were to facilitate a dialogue on the need for policy and governance mechanisms for adoption of health data standards in countries and to draft a policy and governance framework for full adoption of standards at national and sub-national levels. Other materials are also available through the Forum website at http://www.who.int/ehealth/events/standardization_forum_2014/en/

The Forum was hosted by WHO’s Knowledge, Ethics and Research department within the Health Systems and Innovation cluster. It was co-chaired by Najeeb Al Shorbaji and Ramesh Krishnamurthy. The Forum addressed 19 key questions related to six thematic areas:

• Policy approaches in eHealth standardization and interoperability
• Successful policy interventions to overcome barriers in standards adoption
• Governance, stewardship, equity and health systems integration of data standards and interoperability
• Policy and statutory authority components
• Regional perspectives on governance and stewardship of eHealth standardization
• Essentials of a good policy framework for adoption of standards for interoperability of eHealth systems.

eHealth Week 2013: New Technologies, New Ideas, New Opportunities

eHealth Week 2013 (May 13 – 15) will be held at the Convention Centre Dublin, and bring together global decision makers from European public and private healthcare, to join High Level European Ministers and EU Commissioners and over 2,500 international delegates and 100 exhibitors. eHealth Week is co-organised by the European Commission, the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union and HIMSS Europe.

Working with the European Commission, the Irish Department of Health, the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the ECH Alliance, the theme of this year’s event will focus on delivering innovation and well-being. eHealth Week will show the importance of cooperation, communication and Connected Health best-practice.

Full information on the event is available at http://worldofhealthit.org/2013/ – or in the pre-conference brochure. There is also a YouTube video about the event – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EGlrWmQUrQ and the LinkedIn group for discussions at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4807288

The programme is available at http://worldofhealthit.org/2013/education/programme-at-a-glance

The latest media release provides updated information. More information and the programme at www.ehealthweek.org Twitter: @EU_eHealthweek, #eHW13 Facebook  Press Contact: Russell Cooley Tel: 00 353 1 237 7713 Email: russell@ics.ie

HISI (Health Informatics Society of Ireland – www.hisi.ie), IMIA’s Member Society in Ireland, is pleased to be an active partner in eHealth week – especially as it is during the period of the Irish Presidency.

IMIA is pleased to be a Supporting Partner (http://worldofhealthit.org/2013/supporting-partners/).