Dr Lyn Hanmer Receives Inaugural Sedick Isaacs Award
Dr Lyn Hanmer received the inaugural Sedick Isaacs Award at a ceremony on 09 March 2015, at the recent HELINA conference in Accra, Ghana. As part of the award, she gave a keynote presentation “The importance of partnerships for Health Informatics development in HELINA and other low-resource settings” at the HELINA conference, and her presentation will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Health Informatics in Africa (http://www.jhia-online.org/index.php/jhia).
The Sedick Isaacs Award is a newly-inaugurated IMIA Award that recognises the lasting contribution made to health and medical informatics in Africa by Dr Sedick Isaacs [1]. It is an IMIA award, funded by IMIA and administered jointly by IMIA and HELINA. The primary criterion for a recipient of the Sedick Isaacs Award is to recognise “an individual whose personal commitment and dedication to medical informatics has made a lasting contribution to medicine and healthcare within Africa, through her or his achievements in research, education, development or application in the field of medical informatics.” The secondary criterion is that the recipient should be a person living and working in Africa.
Several very high quality nominations were received. The aim is to present the Sedick Isaacs Award at each HELINA conference.
[1] Hanmer, L (2013) Sedick Isaacs Obituary. IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics. http://www.schattauer.de/en/magazine/subject-areas/journals-a-z/imia-yearbook/imia-yearbook-2013/issue/special/manuscript/20004/download.html
HELINA Conference: Accra, Ghana on 7 – 11 March 2015
The delayed HELINA2014 conference will be held in Accra, Ghana at the University of Ghana, ISSER Conference Centre from March 7 – 11, 2015. See http://conf.helina-online.org/index.php/2014/index/ for latest updates.
The conference theme is Informatics for Universal Health Coverage in Africa: From Point of Care Systems to National Strategies.
This year’s conference is supported by the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), the Ghana Ministry of Health, the Ghana National Health Insurance Authority, Ghana Ministry of Communication, Ghana Medical Association, Christian Health Association, Ghana Health Service, Ghana AIDS Commission, the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organization (IHTSDO), and Koegni-eHealth Innovation for Development.
Programme Highlights include:
– Current Innovations in Heath Informatics research and practice from Africa
– Dedicated session on Health Informatics Education in Africa
– Keynote Speech : “The emergence of clinical terminology in healthcare” Don Sweete, CEO, International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO)
– Gala and networking night on 9th March, 2015
Final conference programme will be available on Tuesday 17 February 2015. Information will be posted on the conference website
Pre-conference Events:
– Big Data and Data Mining Tutorial on 7th March, 2015
– Health Information System and Interoperability – Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine-Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) tutorial on 8th March, 2015
Please direct all questions to HELINA (hcs[at]helina-online.org), not to IMIA.
Contact: hcs[at]helina-online.org
Notice of HELINA Conference: 7 – 11 March 2015; Accra, Ghana
HELINA, and the organisers of the delayed HELINA2014 conference, are pleased to confirm that the event will be held in Accra, Ghana at the University of Ghana, ISSER Conference Centre from March 7 – 11, 2015. See http://www.helina-online.org/en/conferences/helina-2014 for further updates.
They write, in the latest HELINA newsletter: “With regard to the notice of postponement of the HELINA 2014 conference due to the ban on international conference in Ghana as part of measures to prevent the outbreak of Ebola in Ghana, we are happy to announce to the community that the ban has come to an end. In view of this, the HELINA and GHIA Council would like to announce that the HELINA 2014 conference will be held in Accra, Ghana at the University of Ghana, ISSER Conference Centre from March 7 – 11, 2015. With regard to this new development the organizers of HELINA 2014 are pleased to announce that the conference fees remain unchanged. We are looking forward to seeing you in Accra.”
Please direct all questions to HELINA (hcs[at]helina-online.org), not to IMIA.
|
Conference Fees
*Package includes conference fee, accommodation and meals. Important dates
Contact: hcs[at]helina-online.org |
HELINA Conference – Extended Call for Participation Closes 16 November
The organisers of the HELINA2014 conference announced a postponement of the event, due to circumstances beyond their control. See http://conf.helina-online.org/index.php/2014/oct2014/announcement/view/17 for information.
They write: “Due to the outbreak of Ebola in the West Africa region, and as part of measures to prevent the outbreak of Ebola in Ghana, the Government of Ghana on Thursday August 14, 2014 placed a three month ban on all international conferences and gatherings in the Country. In view of this uncontrollable circumstance HELINA and GHIA Council announce the postponement of this year conference, initially scheduled from 11-15 October 2014, to 7-11 March 2015.
The organizers of HELINA 2014 are pleased to extend the invitation for original submissions that address the use of informatics or computer sciences for universal health coverage in Africa in the following categories:
- Full research papers (completed research with mature results) with 5 to 8 pages
- Work in progress papers with 5 to 8 pages
- Experience presentations or “case studies” (reports of health informatics or e-Health implementations and lessons learned) (1 page abstract)
Conference theme: Informatics for Universal Health Coverage in Africa: From Point of Care Systems to National Strategies
Submissions can be prepared either in English or French and must not have been proposed to other symposia or journals. An online submission system and a submission template available on the conference web site http://conf.helina-online.org/index.php/2014/index/ must be used. The template contains more detailed instructions following the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals http://www.icmje.org/manuscript_1prepare.html. In case of difficulties while using the submission platform, please contact the conference technical team directly at technical@helina-online.org.
Submissions will undergo a double-blind peer reviewing process. Accepted full research papers will be published in the journal of Health Informatics in Africa (http://www.jhia-online.org) and accepted work in progress papers will be published in an electronic conference proceedings on the website of HELINA with an ISBN. At least one author must register to attend the conference.
The submission deadline for this extended call for participation is 16 November 2014.
Any new developments will be advised at http://conf.helina-online.org/index.php/2014/index/
IMPORTANT DATES:
Submission deadline: 16 November 2014 (NO further extensions will be allowed)
Notification of acceptance of submissions: 9 January 2015
Camera-ready paper deadline: 16 February 2015
Conference: 7 – 11 March 2015
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].
Postponement of HELINA2014 Conference (Ghana)
The organisers of the HELINA2014 conference have announced a postponement of the event, due to circumstances beyond their control. See http://conf.helina-online.org/index.php/2014/oct2014/announcement/view/17 for information.
They write:
“Due to the outbreak of Ebola in the West Africa region, and as part of measures to prevent the outbreak of Ebola in Ghana, the Government of Ghana on Thursday August 14, 2014 placed a three month ban on all international conferences and gatherings in the Country. In view of this uncontrollable circumstance HELINA and GHIA Council announce the postponement of this year conference, initially scheduled from 11-15 October 2014, to 7-11 March 2015.
With regard to this new development the organizers of HELINA 2014 are pleased to extend the invitation for original submissions that address the use of informatics or computer sciences for universal health coverage in Africa in the following categories:
- Full research papers (completed research with mature results) with 5 to 8 pages
- Work in progress papers with 5 to 8 pages
- Experience presentations or “case studies” (reports of health informatics or e-Health implementations and lessons learned) (1 page abstract)
Submissions can be prepared either in English or French and must not have been proposed to other symposia or journals. The submission deadline is therefore extended to 16 November 2014.
We are sincerely apologise if this change might affect your plan; we will immediately inform you of any new development for your prompt action and participation.”
Further updates will be provided on the HELINA website, and will be distributed through IMIA channels.
Sedick Isaacs Award – 2014 Call for Nominations Open Until 15 August
The Sedick Isaacs Award is a newly-inaugurated IMIA Award that recognises the lasting contribution made to health and medical informatics in Africa by Dr Sedick Isaacs [1]. It is an IMIA award, funded by IMIA and administered jointly by IMIA and HELINA. The primary criterion for a potential recipient of the Sedick Isaacs Award is to recognise “an individual whose personal commitment and dedication to medical informatics has made a lasting contribution to medicine and healthcare within Africa, through her or his achievements in research, education, development or application in the field of medical informatics.” The secondary criterion is that the recipient should be a person living and working in Africa.
Nominations are invited for the 2014 Sedick Isaacs Award. Nominations have no specific format, but must include sufficient information and supporting details about the nominee to both demonstrate how they meet the criteria and allow their nomination to be judged against others. They should contain, at a minimum:
– a one page summary of the nominee’s most important accomplishments/contributions as applicable to the Award;
– a short current CV; and
– 2-3 letters of support from named referees, or nominator and seconders.
They should be sent to the IMIA Office (by email: imia@imia-services.org ) no later than 15 August, 2014.
The Award will be presented at the HELINA2014 conference (Accra, Ghana; 11-15 October 2014). The recipient of the award will be invited to make a keynote/plenary presentation at the HELINA conference and to publish a version of the presentation in the “Journal of Health Informatics in Africa”. The award itself will not have an monetary value, but IMIA will budget a sum to cover costs of travel within Africa to the HELINA2014 conference and up to 3 nights accommodation at the conference.
The Sedick Isaacs Award 2014 Committee will comprise:
- IMIA President – Chair
- HELINA President – Vice chair
- HELINA VP to IMIA Board – Member
- Representative of IMIA Member Society in Africa hosting the HELINA conference – Member
- IMIA CEO – Member
The Call document is available to download. Any questions should be directed to the IMIA Office in the first instance – by email: imia@imia-services.org
[1] Hanmer, L (2013) Sedick Isaacs Obituary. IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics. http://www.schattauer.de/en/magazine/subject-areas/journals-a-z/imia-yearbook/imia-yearbook-2013/issue/special/manuscript/20004/download.html
Post No. 800 – HELINA2014, Call for Participation
UPDATED 17 June – call for submissions extended to 30 June.
The 9th Health Informatics in Africa Conference – HELINA 2014 – will take place in Accra, Ghana from the 11 – 15th October 2014. This year’s conference is hosted by the Ghana Health Informatics Association (GHIA). HELINA, the Pan African Health Informatics Association, is the African Region of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA).
Full information will be available at http://conf.helina-online.org/index.php/2014/index/
The conference theme is: Informatics for Universal Health Coverage in Africa: From Point of Care Systems to National Strategies
The organizers of HELINA 2014 invite original submissions that address the use of informatics or computer sciences for universal health coverage in Africa in the following categories:
- Full research papers (completed research with mature results) with 5 to 8 pages
- Work in progress papers with 5 to 8 pages
- Experience presentations or “case studies” (reports of health informatics or e-Health implementations and lessons learned) (1 page abstract)
Submissions can be prepared either in English or French and must not have been proposed to other symposia or journals.
An online submission system and a submission template available on the conference web site http://conf.helina-online.org/index.php/2014/index/ must be used. The template contains more detailed instructions following the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals http://www.icmje.org/manuscript_1prepare.html. In case of difficulties while using the submission platform, please contact the conference technical team directly at technical@helina-online.org.
Submission deadline: extended to 30 June 2014
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
General Chair of the Conference: Ghislain Kouematchoua, hcs[at]helina-online.org
Local organizing Committee Chair: Nutefe E. Achoribo, hcs[at]helina-online.org
Scientific Programme Committee Chair: Nicky Mostert-Phipps, spc[at]helina-online.org
Scientific Programme Committee Co-Chair: Samuel Bosomprah, spc[at]helina-online.org
Scientific Programme Committee Co-Chair: Frank Verbeke, spc[at]helina-online.org
First International Health Information Management Conference for Africa
Our colleague Angelika Haendel, President of IFHIMA (www.ifhima.org) writes:
The Health Information Manager’s Association of Nigeria (HIMAN) and the International Federation of Health Information Management Associations (IFHIMA) are pleased to invite delegates from Africa and around the world to attend the 1st International Health Information Management Conference for Africa – to be held at the National Sickle Cell Foundation, Lagos, Nigeria – August 12th to 14th 2014
The conference theme of this important conference for the Africa region is “Knowing It Better” – this is a concept and process-oriented information system in the healthcare industry, which involves the implementation and adoption of EHR and developing standard procedures for categorizing diseases for morbidity and mortality reporting. The result of the integration of EHR would address specific characteristics in the healthcare processes, increase the quality and effectiveness of medical services including shared semantics of healthcare domain concepts designed to strengthen communications amongst healthcare providers.
The programme will feature eminent speakers from WHO, IFHIMA and other HIM/HIT/HI organizations; and topics will include:
- Developing Human Resources for HIM Practice
- A vision for Better Health for Africa enabled by Electronic Health Records
- Improving the Quality of Health Information Systems in Africa
- WHO’s ICD 10 Training Initiative for Africa
- Ethical Issues Surrounding the Use of Health Information
- Prospects and Challenges of Telemedicine
Registration form should be returned ASAP to: HIMAN President, Health Records Dept., LUTH, Lagos, Nigeria nhra009[at]yahoo.com
January 2014 Events Reminder
January is often a quiet time for health informatics events. However, we start 2014 with two events.
CINFOMED, the 2nd Medical Informatics Conference in DR Congo will be held in the meeting room of the Petit Trianon restaurant at the French Circle of Kinshasa, DR Congo on January 15, 2014, under the main theme “Ensuring Health for all through New Technologies”. Information is available on the website of the conference at http://cinfomed.asso-web.com
2ième Conférence d’informatique médicale en RD Congo, CINFOMED 2014 le 15 Janvier 2014 – “Garantir la Santé pour tous grâce aux Nouvelles Technologies” – Salle de réunion du restaurant le petit Trianon au Cercle au Cercle Français de Kinshasa
The new iHealth 2014, to be held on 30 January-01 February, 2014 at the Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista, Orlando, Florida, USA. The event is convened by AMIA, and full information is at http://www.ihealthconference.org – advance registration rates are available until 09 January.
“iHealth is about what works. And what doesn’t. iHealth is about solutions created and refined in the real world that make health care better. iHealth is about the answers … capture iNFORMATION about the iNDIVIDUAL and apply iNFORMATICS to create iNTELLIGENCE that drives iNNOVATION to radically iMPROVE health care.”
For those planning ahead, remember the following deadlines for submissions to conferences later in the year:
06 January – submission deadline for EFMI STC 2014 (Hungary) – www.stc2014.org
27 January – submission deadline for scientific contributions to eHealth2014 (Austria) – www.ehealth2014.at
31 January – submission deadline for papers and posters to MIE2014 (Turkey) http://www.mie2014.org ; submission deadline for workshop proposals BDAH2014 (Singapore) http://www.bdah.org
About IMIA News
IMIA News is the most frequently updated news and information service from the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA – www.imia.org). We aim to provide items about IMIA, its members, and their activities, as well as material from the wider health and medical informatics communities globally. We extract content to provide a regular, initially monthly email newsletter for IMIA members. News updates are automatically sent out via Twitter, and a selection are highlighted on the main IMIA website and the IMIA Facebook page. We also use the OnSwipe plug-in to provide a special iPad interface.
This news service is under continuous development as we explore its usefulness to IMIA members and the wider community. We will incorporate new applications and features when they seem to be of benefit.
IMIA News can now be accessed at http://news.imia.info Contact email for all IMIA News issues: news[at]imia-services.org
Subscribe
Subscribe to IMIA News by Email or see 'Subscribe' page for other methods----------
Click on logo link to subscribe to the ACI eTOC and/or the METHODS eTOC (electronic table of contents).
Medinfo2015
IMIA website QR Code
This is the QR Code to access the IMIA website via mobile/smartphones and other QR readers.
IMIA News 
You must be logged in to post a comment.