Abstract
Objectives
To inform the medical and health informatics community on the rational, goals, and
the achievements of the International Partnership for Health Informatics Education
– IPHIE, (IΦE), that was established at six universities in 1999: The University of
Amsterdam, the Universities of Heidelberg and Heilbronn, the University of Health
Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology at Innsbruck, the University of Minnesota,
and the University of Utah.
Methods
We elaborate on the overall goals of IΦE and describe the current state of affairs:
the activities undertaken and faculty and student experience related to these activities.
In addition we outline the lessons we have learned over these past six years and our
plans for the future.
Results
IΦE seeks to maintain, improve and promote medical and health informatics education
through international collaboration of graduate and baccalaureate programs in medical
and health informatics. IΦE members first started to collaborate by supporting and
encouraging the exchange of talented students and faculty and by establishing joint
master classes for honors students. Following the success of these activities, new
initiatives were undertaken such as the organization of student workshops at Medical
Informatics conferences and a joint course on strategic information management in
hospitals in Europe.
Conclusions
International partnerships such as IΦE take time to establish, and, if they are to
be successful, maintaining leadership continuity is critically important. We are convinced
that IΦE promotes professionalism of future medical informatics specialists. There
will be a continuing growth of globalization in higher education. It will therefore
become increasingly important to offer educational programs with international components.