Introduction
EFMI is a nonprofit organization concerned with the theory and practice of Information
Science and Technology within Health and Health Science in a European context. Apart
from other activities EFMI’s success heavily relies on the work been done by its working
groups.
Current Working Groups
Currently EFMI has 16 active working:
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EDU - Education in Health Informatics
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EHR - Electronic Health Records
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EVAL - Assessment of Health Information Systems
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HIIC - Health Informatics for Interregional Cooperation
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HIME – Health Information Management Europe
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HOFMI - Human and Organisational Factors of Medical Informatics
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IDeS - Information and Decision Support in Biomedicine and Health Care
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LIFOSS -Libre/Free and Open Source Software in Health Informatics
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MCRO/MBDS - Casemix, Resources Management and Outcomes of Care
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MIP - Medical Image Processing
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NLU - Natural Language Understanding
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NURSIE - Nursing Informatics in Europe
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PCI - Primary Care Informatics
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PPD Personal Portable Devices
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SSE – Safety, Security and Ethics
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THI- Translational Health Informatics
Lacramioara Stoicu-Tivadar, EFMI Vice President in charge with WG activities and Ying
“Helen” Wu, IMIA Vice President for WGs are working together to encourage an active
collaboration between both organization’s working groups. The objective is to identify
common goals and to harmonize the cooperation between EFMI and IMIA WG actions.
The following paragraphs provide detailed information about selected working groups
from EFMI.
EFMI WG EDU
Education in Health Informatics
Chair:
John Mantas
Health Informatics Laboratory
University of Athens, Greece
E-mail: jmantas@nurs.uoa.gr
Co-Chair:
Arie Hasman
Department of Medical Informatics
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
E-mail: a.hasman@amc.uva.nl
http://en.hil.nurs.uoa.gr/wgedu.html
Main Objectives
Introducing eHealth applications and the Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI)
discipline into the health care domain requires high quality, educated, and trained
professionals from the health and technology domains. Education is considered the
most appropriate tool to improve the acceptance, attitude, and behavior towards eHealth
applications by professionals working in the healthcare environment. EFMI is well
aware of the importance of education and in its history; the working group in education
was the first working group to be established. Since education has value internationally
and there no limitations to its objectives, the working group seeks to achieve international
cooperation as part of its main objectives which may be summarized as follows: Collection
of information on existing programs and curricula in the field, dissemination of experiences
in implementing educational programs, evaluation, and accreditation of programs, and
finally certification of users in BMHI knowledge and skills. Specifically, the objectives
are:
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To disseminate and exchange information on Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI)
programs and courses.
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To exchange experiences of how BMHI is taught and to improve the implementation
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To establish a database on programs and courses on BMHI education
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To produce international recommendations on BMHI education
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to support BMHI courses and exchange of students and teachers within the EFMI countries.
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To foster the accreditation process of BMHI programs in Europe.
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To explore the process of certification of knowledge and skills of users in BMHI
Relevant Activities 2016
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Representation of EFMI in the accreditation process of academic programs was raised
in regards to the IMIA Accreditation program, which was founded through the dedicated
efforts of several European informaticians. IMIA agreed that EFMI will be presented
in the IMIA accreditation committee that EFMI informaticians will be involved in the
accreditation processes in EFMI countries, and that EFMI’s role in the accreditation
is adequately promoted.
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The EFMI Board initiated the Accreditation and Certification process (AC2). A Task
Force was established to coordinate these activities. The Chair of the WG EDU chairs
the Task Force.
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The activities of the WG EDU and important outcomes will be cited in the new website
of the WG EDU.
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A number of educational related papers were presented during the International Conference
in Informatics, Management and Technology in Healthcare in Athens on July 2016.
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EFMI is providing an operational website for the WG EDU.
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A workshop of the WG EDU was organized at MIE 2016 in Munich.
Activities Planned for 2017
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Enhancing the cooperation between EFMI and IMIA in the accreditation process
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Reviewing the certification process by the Task Force of the AC2 initiative
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Providing, updating, and supporting an operational website for the WG EDU
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Updating the database of the educational programs in Europe hosted at WG website
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Organizing WG/Panel meetings at MIE2017 and Medinfo2017
Relevant Recent Publications
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Hasman A, Mantas J. IMIA Accreditation of Health Informatics Programs. Healthc Inform
Res. 2013 Sep;19(3):154-61.
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Mantas J, Hasman A, Shortliffe EH. Assessment of the IMIA educational accreditation
process. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2013;192:702-6.
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Zogas S, Lialiou P, Gallos P, Mantas J. The e-learning programmes in Greek Universities:
a literature review. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2013;190:89-91.
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Lialiou P, Mantas J. Evaluation of health professionals in the use of internet information
retrieval systems in health: a literature review. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2013;190:80-2.
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Friedman C, Hasman A, Holmes J, Mantas J, Saranto K. International Perspectives on
Program Accreditation for Professional Education in Informatics. MedInfo 2013: 1241.
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Hasman A, Mantas J, Zarubina T. An abridged history of medical informatics education
in Europe. Acta Inform Med. 2014 Feb;22(1):25-36.
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Manifava E, Kolokathi A, Mantas J. Exploring the biomedical and health informatics
educational programs in Europe. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2014;202:67-70.
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Mantas J, Hasman A. IMIA Educational Recommendations and Nursing Informatics. Stud
Health Technol Inform. 2017;232:20-30.
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Mantas J. Biomedical and Health Informatics Education - the IMIA Years.Yearb Med Inform.
2016 Aug 2;Suppl 1:S92-S102. doi: 10.15265/IY-2016-032.
EFMI WG EVAL
Assessment of Health Information Systems
Chair:
Elske Ammenwerth
UMIT - University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology
Hall in Tyrol, Austria
E-mail: elske.ammenwerth@umit.at
Co-Chairs:
Pirkko Nykanen
School of Information Sciences
Tampere University, Finland
E-mail: pirkko.nykanen@uta.fi
Jytte Brender
Dept. of Health Science and Technology
Aalborg University, Denmark
E-mail: jytte@brender.dk
https://iig.umit.at/efmi/
Main Objectives
Information and communications technologies (ICTs) are increasingly being used in
health care. It is evident that the use of modern ICT offers tremendous opportunities
to reduce clinical errors, to support health care professionals, and to increase the
efficiency of care. However, there are also hazards associated with such technologies.
Therefore, rigorous, generalizable evaluations of ICT applications in health care
are necessary. Therefore, the aims of the working group are:
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To foster transdisciplinary dialogues between experts from informatics, medical informatics,
economics, health care, health services research, clinical epidemiology, biometry,
psychology, sociology, ethnography, organizational development, operations research,
and other evaluation fields on a European level, and to encourage exchange on methodological
issues between researchers from different traditions
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To offer an opportunity to share knowledge with the aim of obtaining profitable cross-fertilization
among different fields of expertise and especially between quantitative and qualitative
research
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To promote a combined research agenda to develop frameworks and toolkits for information
systems evaluation, offering guidelines for an adequate combination of evaluation
methods and tools
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To discuss and clarify the networking needs for long-term evaluation research in medical
informatics and to promote combined research proposals at a European level.
Relevant Activities 2016
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The working group organized or co-organized the following activities at HEC/MIE 2016
in Munich (27.8. – 2.9.2016):
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Workshop on “The two-sided market perspective of e-health” (Vivian Vimarlund, Tobias
Mettler, Pirkko Nykänen, Michael Rigby)
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Presentation on “Theoretical foundations for evidence-based health informatics: Why?
How?” (Philip Scott, Andrew Georgiou, Hannele Hypponen, Catherine Craven, Michael
Rigby, Jytte Brender)
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Presentation on “Mixed methods evaluations for understanding impact on patient outcomes
and work practice” (Rebecca Randell, Dawn Dowding, Philip Scott, Andrew Georgiou)
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Presentation on “Challenges on personalized medicine and digital health literacy”
(Pirkko Nykänen) at the EFMI WG summit
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Poster presentation on “Recommendations for Health IT Evaluation Training as a Key
Prerequisite to Obtaining Evidence” (Elske Ammenwerth, Nicolette de Keizer, Jytte
Brender, Catherine Craven, Eric Eisenstein, Andrew Georgiou, Paula Otero, Pirkko Nykänen,
Michael Rigby, Saif Khairat, Philip Scott, Farah Magrabi, Charlene Weir)
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Participation in “HEC 2016 - Meet the Expert”
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At HEC/MIE 2016 in Munich, Elske Ammenwerth and Michael Rigby as editors organized
the official Book Launch Reception for their new book: Evidence-Based Health Informatics
- Promoting Safety and Efficiency through Scientific Methods and Ethical Policy. Around
50 colleagues, friends and authors joined the celebrations and congratulated the editors
and authors. The book is open access available at http://ebooks.iospress.nl/volume/ evidence-based-health-informatics-promoting-safety-and-efficiency-through-scientific-methods-and-ethical-policy
and got > 3.700 downloads until January 2017.
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The working group contributed to a position paper entitled “Evaluation considerations
for secondary uses of clinical data: Principles for an evidence-based approach to
policy and implementation.” This paper will be published in the IMIA Yearbook of Medical
Informatics 2017.
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The working group submitted a paper entitled “How to Teach Health IT Evaluation: Recommendations
for Health IT Evaluation Courses” to MIE 2017, Manchester
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The working group continued its close collaboration with the IMIA Working Group on
Technology Assessment and Quality Development in Health Care. Phone conferences to
discuss cooperation and joint activities were held regularly.
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The bibliography on health IT Evaluation is available at https://iig.umit.at/efmi/bibliogra-phy.htm. The list contains journal papers and books considered as milestone publications.
Activities Planned for 2017
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Presentation of a contribution entitled “How to Teach Health IT Evaluation: Recommendations
for Health IT Evaluation Courses” at MIE 2017.
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Development of a taxonomy for health IT systems and health IT evaluation and subsequent
update of the health IT Evaluation Inventory.
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Contributions to a book entitled “theoretical foundations of health informatics” initiated
by Philip Scott.
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Continuing the links to the sister WGs of AMIA and IMIA by joint activities
Relevant Publications 2016
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Magrabi F, Ammenwerth E, Hyppönen H, de Keizer N, Nykänen P, Rigby M, Scott P, Talmon
J, Georgiou A. Improving Evaluation to Address the Unintended Consequences of Health
Information Technology. Yearb Med Inform 2016; 61-69.
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Rigby M, Magrabi F, Scott P, Doupi P, Hypponen H, Ammenwerth E. Steps in Moving Evidence-Based
Health Informatics from Theory to Practice. Health Informatics Research 2016; 22(4):
255-60.
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Ammenwerth E, de Keizer N, Brender J, Craven CK, Eisenstein E, Georgiou A, Khairat
S, Magrabi F, Nykänen P, Otero P, Rigby M, Scott P, Weir C. Recommendations for Health
IT Evaluation Training as a Key Prerequisite to Obtaining Evidence. Poster at the
MIE2016/ HEC2016 conference, 28.8.-2.9.2016, Munich.
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Ammenwerth E, Rigby M. Evidence-based Health Informatics - Promoting Safety and Efficiency
Through Scientific Methods and Ethical Policy. Stud Health Tech Inform. Vol 222. 2016.
IOS Press. Here are selected chapters from this book that were written by core members
of the working group:
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Rigby M, Ammenwerth E. The need for Evidence in Health Informatics. pp. 3 - 13.
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Magrabi F, Ong M-S, Coiera E. Health IT for Patient Safety and Improving the Safety
of Health IT. pp. 25-36.
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Brender McNair J. Theoretical Basis of Health IT Evaluation. pp. 39-52.
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Scott PJ. Mixed Methods: A Paradigm for Holistic Evaluation of Health IT. pp. 102-113.
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Hyppönen H, Ronchi E, Adler-Milstein J. Health Care Performance Indicators for Health
Information Systems. pp. 181-194.
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Nykänen P, Kaipio J. Quality of Health IT Evaluations. pp. 291-303.
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Ammenwerth E, de Keizer N. Publishing Health IT Evaluation Studies. pp. 304-311.
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Georgiou A. Finding, Appraising and Interpreting the Evidence of Health IT. pp. 312-323.
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Ouloch T, De Keizer N. Evaluation of Health IT in Low-Income Countries. pp. 324-35.
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Rigby M, Ammenwerth E, Talmon J. Forward Outlook: The Need for Evidence and for Action
in Health Informatics. pp. 355-366.
EFMI WG HIIC
Health Informatics for Interregional Cooperation
Chair:
Lacramioara Stoicu-Tivadar
Faculty of Automation and Computers
University Politehnica Timisoara
Timisoara, Romania
E-mail: lacramioara.stoicu-tivadar@aut.upt.ro
http://www.efmi.org/index.php/workinggroups/hiic-health-informatics-for-interregional-cooperation
Main Objectives
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To promote exchange of information and experiences between actors in different regions
in Europe, between EU and USA, EU and other regions of the world.
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To investigate the needs, opportunities, and obstacles for e-health and to review
and select from different education options for developing regions.
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To disseminate European and world-wide results and experiences across regions and
between professionals
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To facilitate access to European groups and their facilities and outcomes for students
and health professionals from developing regions
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To disseminate European and world-wide results and experiences across developing regions
and professionals
Relevant Activities 2016
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Participation with scientific contributions in EFMI STC2016, Paris, France
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Participation in EFMI MIE2016, Munich, Germany and organizing the workshop on regional
projects and low cost solutions for financially challenged regions: Sustainability
of Telemedicine Projects for Resource Challenged Regions (Lăcrămioara Stoicu-Tivadar,
Michael Weinhara, Monika Hubler, Nora Hinsch)
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Consolidating close cross-border cooperation with neighbors, Hungary (Szeged) and
Serbia (Vrsac) in medical informatics education and e-health projects, as example
of good practice.
Activities Planned for 2017
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Identifying European needs in relation with cross-border cooperation in e-Health and
presenting it in a future EFMI event
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Supporting with research papers and a workshop the EFMI conferences ICIMTH in Greece
and STC2017 in Israel
Relevant Publications 2016
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Integrated System for Monitoring and Prevention in Obstetrics-Gynaecology, Robu, Andreea,
Gauca, Bianca, Crisan-Vida, Mihaela, Stoicu-Tivadar, Lacramioara, Ed by: Hofdijk,
J; Seroussi, B; Lovis, C; Ehrler, F; Sieverink, F; Ugon, A; HercigonjaSzekeres, M,
TRANSFORMING HEALTHCARE WITH THE INTERNET OF THINGS, Book Series: Studies in Health
Technology and Informatics, Volume: 221, Pages: 8-12, 2016.
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Evaluating Open-Source Full-Text Search Engines for Matching ICD-10 Codes, Jurcau,
Daniel-Alexandru; Stoicu-Tivadar, Vasile, Ed by:Mantas, J; Hasman, A; Gallos, P; Kolokathi,
A; Househ, MS, UNIFYING THE APPLICATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS OF BIOMEDICAL AND HEALTH
INFORMATICS, Book Series: Studies in Health Technology and Informatics,Volume: 226
Pages: 127-130, 2016.
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Sustainability of Telemedicine Projects for Resource Challenged Regions, Lăcrămioara
Stoicu-Tivadara,b, Michael Weinharac, Monika Hublerd, Nora Hinsche, EFMI WG Healthcare
Informatics for Interregional Cooperation, bUniversity Politehnica Timiăoara, Romania,
Rehabilitation of Northern Afghan Hospitals, University of Basel, Switzerland, Institute
for Pathology, Health Care Center, Lukaskrankenhaus Neuss.
EFMI PG HIME
Health Information Management Europe
Chair:
Rolf Engelbrecht USMF Chisinau E-mail: Engelbrecht@EFMI.info
Co-Chairs:
Angelika Haendel
President of IFHIMA, DVMD board member
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Schwabachanlage 6
Erlangen
Germany
E-mail: angelika.haendel@uk-erlangen.de
Lorraine Nicholson
IFHIMA and IFHIMA-Europe past president
E-mail: l.nicholson@zen.co.uk
http://www.efmi.org
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/EFMI-HIME-Health-Information-Management-4550722/about
Main Objectives
The group operates as a “think-tank” drawing together leading-edge expertise not only
from across the medical documentation and medical informatics spectrum but also from
other professions with relevant generic input to focus on selected topic areas in
support of clinical and healthcare research and routine processes.
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To promote exchange of experience in development, implementation, education, and use
of health record systems
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To promote exchange of standards in close co-operation with SDOs (standard development
organizations) and institutions working in the field on national and European level.
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To investigate the needs, opportunities, and obstacles for health information management.
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To disseminate results and experiences across EFMI members
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To facilitate access to European educational facilities and EFMI members
Activities in general:
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Supporting activities of EFMI, its members (resp. their national societies), and IFHIMA-Europe,
especially MIE and STC conferences.
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Organizing workshops on a national and European level
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Initiation of a Forum using Internet and other publication media
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Making educational and promotional material available
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Preparation of IFHIMA (International Federation of HIM associations) conferences
Relevant Actiities 2016
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LinkedIn group EFMI-HIME. Number of members: 468
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Diverse topics for discussion and announcements
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Participation in ICIMTH2016 14th International Conference on Informatics, Management
and Technology in Healthcare Athens, Athens
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Participation at ICIST2016, Druskininkai/Lithuania
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Discussion of possible conferences in Europe during MICE events CONVENTA, IBTM, MICE-peak,
etc.
Activities Planned for 2017
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Organization of discussions and promotions on the LinkedIn group EFMI-HIME
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Publications in proceedings, books, and journals
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Special Topic Conference STC2017 “Assa Reichert” in cooperation with Israel Health
Information Management Association, 23-24 Oct 2017, Tel Aviv
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Organization of eHealth Session and workshop and presentation at Digital Economy Show
DES2017, 14-16 June 2017, Guadalajara/ Mexico
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Participation in ICIMTH2017, 15th International Conference on Informatics, Management
and Technology in Healthcare Athens, 7-9 July, 2017
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ICIST2017, Druskininkai Lithuania, Session “eHealth Information Management Systems”
and Satellite Conference in Kaunas / Lithuania, 12-15 October 2017
EFMI WG HOFMI
Human and Organizational Factors of Medical Informatics
Chair:
Rebecca Randell
School of Healthcare
University of Leeds
Leeds, UK
E-mail: r.randell@leeds.ac.uk
Co-Chair:
Romaric Marcilly
EVALAB, CIC-IT 807
Lille, France
E-mail: romaric.marcilly@univ-lille2.fr
https://www.efmi.org/index.php/workinggroups/hofmi-human-and-organisational-factors-of-medical-informatics
Main Objectives
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To establish a network of researchers and practitioners interested in the role of
human and organizational factors in the use of healthcare technologies.
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To organize workshops, panels, and tutorials dedicated to this topic at the Medical
Informatics Europe (MIE) conference and other events.
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To disseminate knowledge about the role of human and organizational factors in the
use of healthcare technologies through various activities, including journal publications.
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To support exchange and discussion between researchers and practitioners as well as
European collaborations.
Relevant Activities 2016
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A HOFMI sponsored panel ‘Healthcare Complexity from a Human Factors Perspective’ was
held at HEC 2016: Health – Exploring Complexity, An Interdisciplinary Systems Approach.
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A workshop was held in collaboration with the EVAL working group on ‘Mixed Methods
Evaluations for Understanding Impact on Patient Outcomes and Work Practice’ at HECS
2016.
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HOFMI has established a sub-theme within the working group on Consumer Health Informatics,
which is being led by Maria Hägglund and Isabella Scandurra.
Activites Planned for 2017
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A working group meeting will take place at Informatics for Health in Manchester in
April. As part of this meeting, Maria Hägglund and Isabella Scandurra will introduce
the sub-theme of Consumer Health Informatics and plans will be made for panel and
workshop proposals for MIE 2018.
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A HOFMI sponsored workshop on ‘Reinventing Heuristic Evaluations: Exploring Methods
to Engage Clinicians in Usability Evaluations’ will take place at Informatics for
Health.
Relevant Publications 2016
Members of the working group were involved in several publications on human and organizational
factors of medical informatics, for example:
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Lamer A, Jeanne M, Marcilly R, Kipnis E, Schiro J, Logier R, Tavernier B. (2016) Methodology
to automatically detect abnormal values of vital parameters in anesthesia time-series:
proposal for an adaptable algorithm. Computer methods and programs in biomedicine
129, pp.160-171
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Randell R, Honey S, Alvarado N, Pearman A, Greenhalgh J, Long A, Gardner P, Gill A,
Jayne D, Dowding D. (2016) Embedding robotic surgery into routine practice and impacts
on communication and decision making: A review of the experience of surgical teams.
Cognition, Technology & Work 18(2), pp.423-437
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Randell R, Backhouse M, Nelson EA. (2016) Videoconferencing for site initiations in
clinical studies: Mixed methods evaluation of usability, acceptability, and impact
on recruitment. Informatics for Health and Social Care 41(4), pp/362-372
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Randell R, Keen J, Gates C, Ferguson E., Long A, Ginn C, McGinnis E, Willis S, Whittle
J. (2016) Managing Quality and Safety In Real Time? Evidence From an Interview Study.
Studies in Health Technology & Informatics 228, pp.23-7
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Ruddle R, Thomas R, Randell R, Quirke P, Treanor D. (2016) The Design and Evaluation
of Interfaces for Navigating Gigapixel Images. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human
Interactions 23(1), article 5
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Sockolow P, Dowding D, Randell R, Favela J. (2016) Using Mixed Methods in Health Information
Technology Evaluation. Nursing Informatics 2016, Studies in Health Technology and
Informatics 225, pp.83-87
EFMI WG IDeS
Information and Decision Support in Biomedicine and Health Care
Chair:
Zdenko Sonicki
Andrija Stampar School of Public Health
School of Medicine
University of Zagreb, Croatia
E-mail: zdenko.sonicki@snz.hr
https://www.efmi.org/workinggroups/ides-information-and-decision-support-in-biomedicine-and-health-care
Main Objectives
Decision support systems (DSS) in biomedicine and health care, in the form of various
applications, guidelines, or reminders, are applied more often to assist the decision
making processes. The complexity of decision-making procedures in these areas caused
the development of various decision support systems in order to provide help to the
decision makers. DSS are using existing knowledge and evidence to help the decision
maker to make appropriate decision for the specific situation. The quality and comprehensiveness
of existing evidence and knowledge that are used in such systems influence how appropriate
decisions are derived and decision indirectly affect maker`s behavior. DSS must be
analyzed, systematized, and validated before adopting them for routine use because
of its influence on decisions and decision makers.
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Analysis of currently available Decision Support Systems in biomedicine and health
care, especially in the European environment
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Classification of existing Decision Support Systems
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Definition of the recommendations set for successful evaluation and implementation
of the Decision Support Systems
Relevant Activities 2016
-
Presentation: Sović Brkičić Lj, Sović S, Sonicki Z. e-medication in Croatia at Advancing
and challenging e-medication around the globe - how to achieve patient safety through
nationwide medication processes. Session 3 “nationwide solutions”. MIE 2016; August
28 – September 2 2016. Munich, Germany. (Program overview available at https://hec2016. online-registry.net/download/sessionlist/overview.html)
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Lectures about Decision Support Systems at postgraduate study Leadership and Management
of Health Services, University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia, November
24th-26th 2016. (http://lmhs.eu/)
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Predictive model development in prediction of the success of haemodialysis arteriovenous
fistulas based on intraoperative vein distensibility (ongoing research and PhD thesis)
-
Individual presentations
Activites Planned for 2017
-
Round table “Developing and validating clinical decision rules”, moderator: Mark Ebell,
College of Public Health, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Georgia, USA,
planned for April 2017, venue: University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia
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Working group meeting in Croatia
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Extension on predictive model development in prediction of the success of hemodialysis
arteriovenous fistulas based on intraoperative vein distensibility (ongoing research
and PhD thesis)
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Individual presentations at different meetings focused on decision support topics
EFMI WG LIFOSS
Libre/Free and Open Source Software
Chair:
Thomas Karopka
BioCon Valley GmbH
Germany
E-mail: tk@bcv.org
http://www.efmi.org/index.php/workinggroups/lifoss-librefree-and-open-source-software
Main Objectives
Libre/Free Open Source Software holds a great potential to overcome the fragmentation
in health IT and to foster collaboration among different disciplines and stakeholders.
The WG promotes this approach, organizes workshops, and serves as a networking platform
for individuals interested in this approach. In particular, the LIFOSS WG aims
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To help replicate the success of free/libre and open source projects in the health
informatics domain, in particular those within education, research, clinical practice,
and administration
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To build a repository of knowledge about free/libre and open source developments of
relevance to the health informatics domain
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To develop an Open Source Market Place
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To explore the implications of digital rights management, digital signatures, copyright,
and intellectual property issues
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To liaise with other organizations and groups with related or similar objectives
Relevant Activities 2016
-
Co-organization of and participation in IWEEE 2016, 18-20 November 2016, Las Palmas,
Gran Canaria
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Co-organization of FLOSS Village at Med-e-Tel 2016, 6-8 April 2016, Luxemburg
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Co-organization of FLOSS workshop at HEC2016, 29-31 August 2016, Munich, Germany
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Maintenance of the MedFLOSS.org database
Activities Planned for 2017
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Co-organization of FLOSS Village at Med-e-Tel 2017, 5-7 April 2017, Luxemburg
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Co-organization of IWEEE 2017, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain
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Maintenance of the MedFloss.org database
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Collaboration with other EFMI & IMIA WGs
EFMI WG NURSIE
Nursing Informatics in Europe
Chair:
Patrick Weber
Nice Computing
Ch. de Maillefer 37
CH-1052 Le Mont-sur-Lausanne
Switzerland
E-mail: patrick.weber@nicecomputing.ch
http://www.nicecomputing.ch/nieurope
Main Objectives
-
To support nurses and nursing organizations in the European countries with information
and contacts from the field of informatics
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New objectives are in preparation to allow this working group to bring high value
to members’ countries.
Relevant Activities 2016
-
NI2016 was conducted by IMIA NI. European group were very active. This congress had
708 participants from 42 countries giving 348 presentations/posters. The proceedings
with more than 1’000 pages is available from IOS Press at http://ebooks.iospress.nl/ISBN/978-1–61499-658-3
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The post conference dedicated on Forecasting Informatics Competencies for Nurses in
the Future of Connected Health published a reference book at IOS Press at: http://ebooks. iospress.nl/ISBN/978-1–61499-738-2.
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Geneva Tourism and Convention awarded NI2016 for “Largest International Attendance”
2016
EFMI WG PPD
Personal Portable Devices
Chair:
Lenka Lhotska Department of Cybernetics Faculty of Electrical Engineering Czech Technical
University Prague, Czech Republic E-mail: lhotska@labe.fel.cvut.cz
Co-Chair:
Peter Pharow
Fraunhofer IDMT Illmenau, Germany
E-mail: peter.pharow@idmt.fraunhofer.de
http://www.efmi.org/index.php/workinggroups/ppd-personal-portable-devices
Main Objectives
EFMI Working Group (WG) Personal Portable Devices (PPD) aims at being a European competence
center to monitor ongoing activities and to provide knowledge to policy makers and
architect designers involved in the deployment of projects related to personalized,
portable devices (PPD) such as cards, tokens, wearable and portable devices, sensors
and actuators, and similar technologies including advanced network infrastructures
mainly in the domain of healthcare and welfare. WG PPD links its activities to the
domain of Ambient Assisted Living by liaising with the IMIA WG on Smart Homes and
AAL.
Furthermore, WG PPD representatives are actively involved in standardization activities
in various fields and domains including security, safety, management, ethics, medical
devices, and sensor networks. Members of WG PPD act as a ambassadors to additional
standards developing organizations in various other domains, where aspects of personal
portable (mobile) devices are addressed.
Moreover, the WG PPD actively supports the organization of meetings of various kinds
to disseminate the WG achievements and to exchange knowledge and information about
any topic linked to the interest of the WG PPD members. The main topics the WG PPD
is focused on include:
-
Personal(ized) Portable Devices, sensors and actuators as well as the underlying networks
that enable personal and even personalized health service provision going far beyond
traditional care procedures. It includes wellness, lifestyle, and safety aspects.
Applications from other domains stimulate the respective paradigm shift towards personalized
services (addressing citizens rather than patients) in the healthcare and welfare
domain as well.
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The paradigm shift from health cards to personalized devices and sensor networks for
providing personal health services addresses various technical, medical, organizational,
legal, and standardization aspects of portable devices (EFMI WG PPD) and related work
on sensor networks (ISO/IEC JTC1 SGSN). The EFMI WG PPD is aiming from a technological
viewpoint to advance the present and the near future of personal health service provision
supported by devices of any technology, any kind and any size either directly applied
to the human body, or placed inside the body.
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Patient safety, data and communication security, ethics and legal issues become more
important as the personal devices, wearables, and related technologies are penetrating
the market. With the expected interconnection with Internet of Things these non-technical
issues must be analyzed in depth and recommendations prepared for development of new
applications.
Relevant Activities 2016
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Strengthening the links to relevant societies and their working groups
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Active participation in Int. Conference Electronic Healthcare Documentation 2016,
Prague, Czech Republic
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Active participation in MIE 2016, Munich, Germany – Lenka Lhotska was member of the
SPC; workshop Personal Health Data - Privacy Policy Harmonization and Global Enforcement
jointly organized by EFMI Working Groups Security, Safety and Ethics and Personal
Portable Devices in cooperation with IMIA Working Group “Security in Health Information
Systems”
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Active participation in EFMI STC 2016, Paris, France – Peter Pharow was invited as
keynote speaker
Activities Planned for 2017
-
Strengthening the links to relevant societies and their working groups
-
Active participation in Int. Conference Systems for Medical Decision Support and Forensic
Identification 2017, Prague, Czech Republic
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Active participation in pHealth 2017, Eindhoven, The Netherlands – Lenka Lhotska is
invited as keynote speaker
-
Active participation in EFMI STC 2017, Tel Aviv, Israel – Lenka Lhotska is member
of the SPC
EFMI WG SSE
Security, Safety and Ethics
Chair:
Pekka Ruotsalainen
School of Information Science
Centre of Information and Systems
University of Tampere, Finland
E-mail: pekka.ruotsalainen@uta.fi (Until 31st August 2016)
Jaime Delgado
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Barcelona, Spain
E-mail: Jaime.Delgado@ac.upc.edu (since 1st September 2016)
Co-Chair:
Jaime Delgado
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Barcelona, Spain
E-mail: Jaime.Delgado@ac.upc.edu (Until 31st August 2016)
Andrej Orel
Marand d.o.o.
Ljubljana, Slovenia
E-Mail: andrej.orel@marand.si (Since 1st September 2016)
http://www.efmi.org/index.php/workinggroups/sse-security-safety-and-ethics
Main Objectives
Speeding up the use of ICT for health care increases the challenge for trustworthiness,
security, and safety of solutions and infrastructure deployed. The WG aims to promote
development, education, and training on the field of security and privacy in health
care. Close collaboration with other EFMI WGs and beyond, as well as with IMIA WG4,
for securing ICT solutions for health care.
Relevant Activities 2016
-
During MIE 2016 in Munich, SSE organized the second Joint Workshop together with IMIA
SiHiS WG. The title for the SSE part of the WS was “Personal health data - Privacy
policy harmonization and global enforcement”. It covered balance of use of patient
information and management of potential conflicts, due to privacy, between health
professionals, patients and secondary users. Workshop participants analyzed privacy
expectations that take place in different real-life contexts such as portable health
devices and personal health records and discussed mechanisms to balance them to ensure
that global protection of health data and its meaningful use are realized simultaneously.
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Working Group Meeting at MIE 2016 in Munich. It included a summary of past activities
and a discussion on a plan for next year’s activities (it was stated that the WG also
needed an updated business plan, more young members, and better visibility). Furthermore,
the situation of WG leadership was discussed and new WG chairs were elected.
-
Transfer of the WG Leadership from Pekka Ruotsalainen to Jaime Delgado during and
after MIE 2016 in Munich.
Activities Planned for 2017
-
Develop a long-term activity plan for SSE, discuss it, and accept the plan in the
formal Business Meeting to be held in Manchester during MIE 2017:
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As a part of this plan, SSE will expand current joint work to cover other EFMI WG/
SIGs such as: consumer health informatics, Data mining and Big Data Analysis, HIS,
Health Record Banking, Wearable Sensors in Health care and smart homes and ambient
assisted living. This indicates the future role of SSE as a horizontal activity. This
enables also SSE and other WGs to share expertise and domain specific ethical, security
and privacy concerns.
-
Develop further the collaboration with IMIA SiHiS (Security in Health Information
Systems) WG.
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Develop the way SSE Workshops are functioning. Workshops should include research papers,
theory papers, methodology and conceptual papers, all mixed to provide the widest
possible view on the chosen topic. Workshops will be as interdisciplinary as possible,
including researchers from different institutions and research fields. An important
part of the workshop’s time should be reserved for discussion, small groups, or other
forms of interaction.
-
Develop the visibility of SSE’s work and encourage young experts to participate more
actively in the work of the SSE.
-
Consider new activities, such as producing regular bulletins devoted to specific issues
(that could be the basis for future Workshops), re-activating the web site as a means
of communication between members and to the public outside, etc.
-
Organize a new Workshop form MIE 2017 in Manchester. The Workshop topic will be “Security
and Privacy Standardization in Healthcare - Impact on Patient´s New Roles”. The workshop
will include four 15 min presentations with a thirty minute discussion between presenters
and attendees. The presentations will focus on standards and related initiatives in
security and privacy in healthcare and will focus on their connection to patients’
security taking into account the clear current trend towards patient empowerment.
Relevant Publications 2016
-
Blobel B. Paradigm Changes of Health Systems Towards Ubiquitous, Personalized Health
Lead to Paradigm Changes of the Security and Privacy Ecosystems. International Journal
on Biomedicine and Healthcare 2015;3,1:6-11.
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Blobel B, Ruotsalainen P, Lopez DM, Gonzalez C. How to Use the HL7 Composite Security
and Privacy Domain Analysis Model. International Journal on Biomedicine and Healthcare
2015;3,1:12-17.
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Ruotsalainen P, Blobel B. The New Role of Patients in Future Health Settings. Stud
Health Technol Inform. 2015;211:71-78.
EFMI WG THI
Translational Health Informatics
Chair:
Amnon Shabo (Shvo)
Philips
Israel
E-mail: amnon.shvo@gmail.com
Co-Chair:
Mauro Giacomini
DIBRIS, University of Genova
Genova, Italy
E-mail: Mauro.Giacomini@dibris.unige.it
http://www.efmi.org/index.php/workinggroups/thi-translational-health-informatics
Main Objectives
Translational medicine is a relatively new discipline targeted at removing barriers
in utilizing new scientific discoveries in healthcare, moving from bench to bedside,
on to communities and finally to policy. The biomedical discoveries need to be accompanied
by studies in areas such as health economy as well as sociological and psychological
aspects. In order to manage the information generated by each of these disciplines,
it is crucial to use advanced informatics that could fuse the various types of data
into computerized systems that support the translational processes.
This Working Group will be focused on the health informatics needed for accommodating
the translational challenges. In particular, we will target the following goals:
-
Explore a proposal for a Translational Health Information Language to underlie translational
info-structure
-
Demonstrate feasibility of common translational infostructure for the currently distinct
environments of biomedical research and health care
-
Support studies focusing on informatics underlying translational research and medicine
-
Foster better interrelation of bioinformatics and medical informatics
-
Discuss major challenges in the new OMICS era with regard to translational health
informatics and analytics
Relevant Activities 2016
-
The 4th i2b2 European Academic User Group meeting held in Pavia from September 15th
to September 16th. The program included presentations on projects using i2b2/ tranSMART
and related platforms to collect and aggregate data from clinical, genomic, and other
domains, both for single institution and collaborative projects. Among several aspects
presented in the meetings, the most relevant for the EFMI THI WG were the use of standards
to enforce the re-use of clinical data in research, the interaction between next generation
genomic and clinical data, and the state of the art and future challenges of IT infrastructure
to support precision medicine
Activities Planned for 2017
-
Holding EFMI THI WG Workshop and business meeting at MIE 2017
-
Verifying the possibility of converging synergies with Translational initiatives in
the medical field like “European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine (EATRIS)
Relevant Publications 2016
