IMIA 2024 General Assembly Meeting and IAHSI 2024 Plenary Meeting
IMIA’s 2024 General Assembly meeting and IAHSI 2024 Annual Plenary meeting will be held in conjunction with EFMI’s annual MIE conference in Athens, Greece (25-28 August 2024). The meeting will be accessible virtually for those unable to travel.  Looking forward to seeing everyone in Athens!  More details will be forwarded as details are finalized.

Mark your Calendars now – MedInfo 2025, Taipei, August 9 – 13, 2025!

The IMIA 2025 GA meeting and the IAHSI 2025 Plenary will be held in conjunction with MedInfo 2025, we look forward to seeing you in Taipei!

See the MedInfo 2025 website for more infomormation on MedInfo 2025 and to register to receive update information as it becomes available – https://medinfo2025.org/.

 

Key Dates:
Submission System Opens ~ 2024/4/1
Registration System Opensd ~ 2024/7/1
Submission Deadline ~ 2024/12/4

 

On July 08, 2023 the IMIA General Assembly voted to hold MedInfo 2027 in Dubai, UAE, hosted by the Emirates Health Informatics Society- Emirates Medical Association (EHIS).   Dates and more information will be announced next year.

IAHSI Statement on the Role of Health Informatics in Addressing Climate Change

Statement from the International Academy for Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI), the Academy of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) to all Health Informaticians worldwide

 The effects of climate change on human health are already being felt, and the potential for more severe and widespread impacts is becoming more likely.  The healthcare delivery system is responsible for the generation of a significant amount of electronic and biological waste, much of it in forms that are not rapidly or safely biodegradable.

We are committed to doing our share to both mitigate and adapt to climate change and applaud the efforts already being made by many. Currently, the healthcare industry is estimated to account for between 5-9% of all greenhouse gas emissions. We believe the knowledge, tools, and techniques developed by health informaticians over the past 60 years, coupled with the recent advances and widespread adoption of digital health solutions offer considerable promise in helping to address these challenges.

To reduce these greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the amount of electronic and medical waste, we recommend that health informaticians work on the following high-priority topics:

  1. Mitigate the effects of climate change on the healthcare system and human health,
  2. Reduce the impact of health information technology on the environment,
  3. Use health information technology to reduce the impact of healthcare service delivery on the environment,
  4. Educate the next generation of health informaticians about climate change and what they can do to help reduce its impact on human health, and
  5. Advocate for environmental-friendly health information technology and healthcare service delivery processes, tools, and techniques.

Taken together and with a concerted effort on the part of all health informaticians, these actions will have a significant impact on our environment through reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and environmental waste.

We call on health informaticians to begin working with their clinical, administrative, technical, and legislative colleagues to address these issues before the health of the human race is irrevocably harmed.

We thank and acknowledge the authors of this statement, IMIA’s Academy IAHSI Fellows Dean F. Sittig, Farah Magrabi, Hardeep Singh.  To view and share the complete statement and with acknowledgements of authors and references, please click here.

MedInfo 2023 was held in Sydney, Australia from July 8 – 12, 2023.   Many thanks goes out to IMIA’s host society,  AIDH, for organizing the 19th World Congress on Health Informatics, with over 2500 attending!   The MedInfo 2023 Proceedings will be published in the coming months, an announcement will be made at that time.   In the meantime you can view the presenter information and abstracts for the presentations here.

 

About IMIA

The International Medical Informatics Association, (IMIA),  is an independent organization established under Swiss law in 1989. IMIA was originally established in 1967 as Technical Committee 4 of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP – www.ifip.org). In 1979, it evolved from a Special Interest Group of IFIP to its current status as a fully independent organization. IMIA continues to maintain its relationship with IFIP as an affiliate organization. IMIA also has close ties with the World Health Organization (WHO – www.who.int) as a NGO (Non Government Organization), and with the International Federation of Health Information Management (IFHIMA). IMIA is also a Liaison A category organisation in cooperation with ISO (ISO liaison).

Our Vision: The International Medical Informatics Association seeks to grow and nurture a collaborative global Biomedical and Health Informatics community that encourages and supports international initiatives to improve health for all

Our Mission:  The mission of the International Medical Informatics Association is to bring people together from around the world to advance biomedical and health informatics science, education, and practice through mutual learning and exchange of knowledge, skills and ideas

Strategic Goals:  The International Medical Informatics Association aims to fulfill its mission and realize its vision through a fourfold financially sustainable strategic platform that focuses on Advocacy, Collaboration, and Membership.

  • Advocacy: To champion the recognition and growth of the biomedical and health informatics profession with professional and governmental organizations.
  • Collaboration: To promote the cross-fertilization of health informatics knowledge and skills across academic, professional, and geographical boundaries, while serving as the catalyst for ubiquitous worldwide health information infrastructures for patient care and health research.
  • Membership: To strengthen opportunities for participation in the Association by all members, across all membership categories.
  • Promote Academic and Professional Excellence : To promote academic and research excellence and to exchange knowledge and evidence to prepare the next generation of health and biomedical informatics researchers and professionals  Read more…

For more information about IMIA, check out the links below

IMIA Membership

IMIA’s Governance Structure

MedInfo’s IMIA’s internationally acclaimed biennial “World Congress on Medical and Health Informatics”

Working and Special Interest Groups

 

IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics

 

IMIA’s International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics, IAHSI

 

IMIA Code of Ethics 

 

 IMIA Accredited Health & Biomedical Informatics Program

 

                          

 

 “That IMIA provides a model example for successful, tolerant and peaceful collaboration of individuals, beyond any nations and cultures, for the sake of health and quality of life of the people in our world”, Prof. Dr. Reinhold Haux, Past President of IMIA.

 

Solidarity Message to Ukrainian Association of Computer Medicine – Appeal for PEACE!

In these difficult times, when Russian bombs destroy homes, kill lives and displace innocent people, we, the members of the European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI) and the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) express our firm position against war and any kind of violence. We do not tolerate violations of fundamental human rights and attempts to divide the international scientific community. We fully agree with the adopted United Nation’s General Assembly resolution of March 2, 2022, demanding the Russian Federation to immediately end its illegal use of force in Ukraine and to withdraw all troops.

We admire the dignity and the heroism of the Ukrainian people who risk their lives to defend the so hardened way to freedom asking nothing else but the most natural human desire – PEACE! We also respectfully take notice of the courage of many Russian scientists and citizens, who protest publicly against this illegal military action, despite the fear of severe repression.

The history of humanity shows that PEACE is the key to progress, to collaboration between people and nations, to prosperity, and to everyday life. The work of the Members of EFMI and IMIA, is focused on the health and well-being for all individuals around the world. Respect and PEACE is a necessary prerequisite to collaborate in a tolerant and peaceful way, transcending nations, cultures, and political or social structures. That is why we, EFMI and IMIA, in a unanimous voice, make an insistent appeal to stop all military actions and find all possible ways to bring PEACE again in our homes, in our lives, and in our world!

Right now we, EFMI and IMIA,

–   sadly have stopped organizing or endorsing international conferences, workshops and other events of our organizations in Russia. But how could we, coming from all parts of our world, share our knowledge in a country, where the political leadership decided for this aggression against Ukraine, an independent state, an aggression which is most seriously violating the United Nations Charter?

–   urge our members, in particular those who are chairing research institutes and labs, to consider Ukrainian scientists for vacant positions in order to support our colleagues in these difficult and embarrassing times. Our support will include assistance to our Ukrainian colleagues who have decided to continue their work abroad in finding jobs, joining work teams and collaboration in research projects.

To share this statement please click here