e-Health 2012; May 27-30, Vancouver – Call for Abstracts Closes 01 December

e-Health 2012: Innovating Health e-Care will be held in Vancouver, BC, Canada from May 27 to May 30, 2012. The conference will be held in the heart of Vancouver at the newly renovated East Building of the Vancouver Convention Centre. Full information will become available on the event website at http://www.e-healthconference.com/

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 01 December, 2011 – see information at http://www.e-healthconference.com/submit.html The Call states clearly that “late submissions will not be accepted”.

This annual event is hosted by COACH: Canada’s Health Informatics Association, in conjunction with the Canadian Institute for Health Information and Canada Health Infoway.

COACH (http://www.coachorg.com) is a Member Society of IMIA.

Faculty Position in Health Informatics at University of Waterloo, Canada

The School of Public Health and Health Systems at the University of Waterloo is seeking an exceptional teacher and applied researcher for a tenure track position in health informatics. The position requires a PhD and is suitable for persons with a demonstrated appreciation and understanding of the field of health informatics in the context of public health and health systems. The initial appointment will be at a rank of Assistant or Associate Professor.

The attached document provides full details on the position – the closing date for applications is 05 December, 2011. Details are also available at http://www.ahs.uwaterloo.ca/positionsavailable/

The ideal candidate will have primary expertise in health informatics such as the collection, organization, use, manipulation, protection, analysis, dissemination, and display of information to inform policy and other decision making for public health or health systems. Informatics expertise in complex adaptive systems and systems thinking, health care services integration and efficiency, public and population health, health and aging, health inequalities, or chronic disease prevention would be particularly appealing. Expertise in hardware systems or a research focus on purely clinical applications is outside the scope of this position.  The position will include a balance of teaching, graduate supervision and advisement, service, and research.  The successful applicant must have a demonstrated record of achievement or show exceptional promise as a productive and innovative systems thinker and change agent, as well as an effective applied researcher, teacher and graduate supervisor.

The anticipated start date is spring, 2012.  Please submit a curriculum vitae, a letter of interest, a statement of teaching philosophy and experience, as well as three letters of reference to: Dr. Paul McDonald, Professor and Director, School of Public Health and Health Systems, Burt Mathews Hall, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada, N2L 3G1.  Application materials may also be sent electronically to pwmcdona[at]uwaterloo.ca.

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority.  The University of Waterloo encourages applications from all qualified individuals including women, members of visible minorities, aboriginal peoples, and persons with disabilities.

Please note: all queries should be directed to University of Waterloo, not to IMIA.

IMIA Board and GA Meetings Report; Medinfo2015

The IMIA Board and General Assembly (GA) met in Oslo, Norway over the weekend of 27-28 August, 2011. The meetings were very successful, with about 60 GA members present on Sunday.

Among the highlights of decisions taken:

• three new Member Societies were accepted, specifically the eHealth Association of Pakistan (eHAP) (http://www.ehap.net.pk), the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka (HISSL) (http://www.hissl.org) and the Peruvian Association of Biomedical Informatics (Asociación Peruana de Informática Biomédica) (http://www.apib.pe/)
• two new Academic institutional members were accepted, the National Institutes of Health (NIHI), Canada (replacing University of Waterloo) and the University of Surrey, Department of Health Care Management and Policy, UK.

Following the submission of two high quality bids, after presentations from the two bid teams, the GA voted to hold Medinfo2015 in Sao Paolo, Brasil in late August 2015.

A modest rise in IMIA membership fees was approved, and the details will be communicated to all members, to be implemented from January 2012.

New Board positions were approved, specifically:

• Lincoln de Assis Moura Jr as President-elect (2011-13) and President from 2013-15;
• Lyn Hanmer as Secretary for a second term (2012-15);
• Sabine Koch as Treasurer (2012-15);
• Michio Kimura as VP Membership (2012-15);
• Chris Lehmann as VP Services (2012-15).

IMIA Honorary Fellowship was awarded to Ed Hammond.

Further news from the GA will be included in the monthly email bulletin to IMIA members.

IMIA Board and General Assembly Meetings, 2011

The IMIA General Assembly (GA) meeting will be held on Sunday, 28 August, 2011 in Oslo, Norway in conjunction with the MIE2011 conference (www.mie2011.org).

Attendance at the GA is by invitation only, but open to all official representatives of IMIA Member Societies and of Academic and Corporate Institutional Members, to WG/SIGs chairs, Honorary Fellows, and Corresponding Members. See http://www.imia-medinfo.org/new2/node/40

For catering and other logistical purposes, we need an accurate estimate of the number of people who will be attending. If you have not already done so, please inform the IMIA Secretary (email: Lyn.Hanmer@mrc.ac.za) with copy to the IMIA CEO (email: imia@imia-services.org) whether you or a proxy will be attending.

If the representative of your organisation has changed, please let us know as soon as possible.

The IMIA Board (invitation only) will meet on 27 August.

MIE2011 – we hope that as many IMIA GA members, and others, as possible will attend MIE2011, the XXIII International Conference of the European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI – www.efmi.org) takes place in Oslo, Norway on 28-31 August, 2011. Full information is at http://www.mie2011.org

UPDATE: an email was sent to GA members on August 09, including how to access documents.

Evidence Base for Informatics – on ‘Informatics Professor’ Blog

Bill Hersh, Professor and Chair of the Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology, Oregon Health & Science University, USA has recently provided an interesting post titled “What is the Evidence Base for Informatics, Health IT, and Related Areas? Some Recent Analyses” on his “Informatics professor” blog >>>

The post discusses a number of recent publications, and subsequent discussion, about the “evidence base” for the efficacy of biomedical and health informatics interventions, including electronic health records.

IMIA Website Back Online

We are pleased to report that that IMIA website is now back online and functioning normally.

Dr Peter J. Murray, IMIA CEO

IMIA Website Offline

We are currently experiencing some technical problems with the main IMIA website.

We are aware with the problems, and will deal with them, and restore website functionality, as soon as possible.

IMIA Code of Ethics for Health Information Professionals

IMIA is currently considering whether its Code of Ethics (available via http://www.imia-medinfo.org/new2/node/39 in English and some other languages) requires up-dating and if so, in what regard.

To this end, it has struck an ad hoc committee consisting of B. Barber (UK), P. Croll (Australia), K. Ishikawa (Japan) and L. Moura (Brazil), with E-H Kluge (Canada) as Chair. The ad hoc committee herewith invites comments and/or suggestions from IMIA members in this regard, with a deadline of March 31, 2011. Comments and/or suggestions should be addressed to the Committee Chair at ekluge@uvic.ca

GHDOnline – Global Health Delivery Online

International Health IT Online Community for Middle and Lower Income Settings

GHDonline.org (www.ghdonline.org) is a platform of professional virtual communities, with 3,500 members from 130 countries focusing on health in developing countries. One of the eight public communities focuses on health information technology. In the community, implementers, practitioners, and research solve problems, discuss practical tools and capture experiences not found in traditional publications and online resources.

Examples of discussions include:

• Using SMS technology to prevent pharmacy stock-outs
• Promoting local software development for global health
• Using wireless technologies to monitoring and improve treatment adherence

Some of the best features of GHDonline.org are:

• Discussion and file-sharing in multiple language including English, Spanish, and French
• Expert guidance from moderators and from a community of experts
• Ability to see and participate in discussion online and through email
• A search that looks at GHDonline content, partner sites, and a more than 100 news feeds and websites

GHDonline.org extends an invitation to anyone interested in these areas to join at www.ghdonline.org

AMIA2010 Annual Symposium Countdown

The AMIA 2010 Annual Symposium will take place from Saturday, November 13 to Wednesday, November 17 at the Hilton Washington & Towers, 1919 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC, USA. Full information about the event, including how to register, is on the event website – http://symposium2010.amia.org

The event begins with a series of pre-conference activities, including 30 tutorials and satellite events, on Friday, November 12 to Sunday, November 14. The formal start of the Symposium will be the Opening Session and Keynote Address on Sunday, November 14 at 1:00 PM.

‘Symposium News’ newsletters are available at http://symposium2010.amia.org/symposium-news

AMIA is also holding a book-signing party with the editors, at AMIA 2010, Washington, DC, on Sunday, Nov. 14, from 5:30-7 p.m. in the AMIA booth on the Exhibition floor, for the new “Nursing and Informatics for the 21st Century: An International Look at Practice, Education and EHR Trends”.

For those who wish to interact online, whether at the event or at a distance, AMIA’s new Facebook Page is at facebook.com/AMIAInformatix, and you can follow on Twitter at AMIAInformatix