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Société Malienne d’Informatique Biomédicale et de Santé (SOMIBS)

Website: http://www.keneya.net

Head Office:
Hôpital Mère Enfant le Luxembourg
BP : E3791
Hamdallaye
Bamako, Mali


IMIA Representative:    Image
Dr. Cheikh Oumar Bagayoko
Coordinator, RAFT
Universite du Mali
Bamako, Mali

President:     Image
Prof. Abdel Kader Traoré
Directeur CNAM
Université du Mali
Bamako, Mali

Founded: 2005     Membership: 250

The Mali Society of Biomedical and Health Information (SOMBIS)
SOMIBS was created in March of 2005 to extend the activities of REIMICOM, the network of healthcare institutions for medical informatics in Mali.

REIMICOM was founded as a non-profit association in 2002 to regroup all hospitals and healthcare institutions in Mali and provide them with IT services (a private network with high internet bandwidth, a secure e-mail server, a Web portal with specific contents, and tools and coordination for distance medical education in cooperation with the RAFT project).

With the extension of this network, it appears necessary to open it to other partners and to provide a platform for professional exchanges in the form of a Society of Biomedical and Health Informatics. The creation of this national society, in the form of a non-profit association, has been approved by the Minister of Health in Mali and has been announced officially at the Journées Francophones d’Informatique Médicale held in Lille in May 2005. This society will host this event in Bamako in 2007.

So far, REIMICOM and SOMIBS have been involved in the following activities:

– the development of distance continuing education for healthcare professionals since 2002,
– the promotion of teleconsultations and teleradiology since 2003,
– the organization of the first roundtable on ITC in health in November of 2002, with the support of the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) and the Minstry of Health,
– the organization of the national workshop on ITC in health in September of 2003, with the support of IICD and the Ministry of Health,
– training activities in regional hospitals (120 professionals trained to the use of ITC in the 6 regions of Mali),
– counselling for the creation and hosting of medical Web sites for the members of the association.
– participation to national and pan-african strategic workshops for the development of ITC in health
– training of decision makers, including the cabinet of the Ministry of Health

SOMIBS currently has over 250 members: physicians,nurses,other care professionnals and IT specialists. The population of Mali amounts to 14 million inhabitants.