IMIA: Coalescing Medical Informatics Worldwide for 40 Years

Summary

Objectives

To summarize and highlight the role of IMIA in the past 40 years in becoming the international professional organization that brings together researchers, practitioners, and educators in the field of medical informatics, and more broadly biomedical, nursing, and health informatics

Method

Outlining developments of medical informatics related to IMIA from 1967 to 2007 in a time-line and comparative topic and geographical distribution analyses over selected MEDINFOs from 1980 and selected Yearbooks from 1992 onwards. This illustrates how IMIA, through the global reach of its activities, has helped advance the science and development of informatics across the entire spectrum of biomedical and health care research, education, and practice.

Results and conclusions

The contribution of IMIA over the past 40 years has been to sponsor and coordinate international conferences and promote interchange and collaborations in biomedical and health informatics by linking national and regional societies, organizing meetings, high quality publications, and working groups. These have helped the coalescing of the discipline worldwide, promoting full participation and a broad interdisciplinary scope that fulfills the hopes of the pioneers in the field.

Keywords

International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) history - medical informatics - health and nursing informatics - world congresses of medical informatics (MEDINFOs) - IMIA Yearbook - and Working Groups

 

• References

• 1 IMIA’s History. website: http:///www.imia.org/history.html
• 2 Degoulet P, Haux R, Kulikowski C, Lun KC. François Grémy and the birth of IMIA. 1^st IMIA/ UMIT Medical Informatics Award of Excellence given to Professor Grémy. Methods Inf Med 2005; 44 (03) 349-51.
• 3 van Bemmel JH, Bergemann D. Gustav Wagner (1918 – 2006) Founding Editor of Methods: In Memoriam. Methods Inf Med 2007; 46 (01) 1.
• 4 Peterson HE. From Punched Cards to Computerized Patient Records: A Personal Journey. In: Haux R, Kulikowski CA. editors. IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics 2006. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 2006: 174-79.
• 5 Anderson J, Forsyth JM. MEDINFO 74. Amsterdam: North Holland; 1974
• 6 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. editors. 1992 Year book of Medical Informatics: Advances in an Inter disciplinary Science. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 1992
• 7 http:///www.imia.org/
• 8 Collen MF. A History of Medical Informatics in the United States: 1950 to 1990. American Informatics Association; 1995
• 9 Blum R, Duncan K. A History of Medical Informatics. ACM Press; 1990
• 10 Ledley RS, Lusted LB. Reasoning Foundations of Medical Diagnosis. Science 1959; 130 3366 9-21.
• 11 Ball MJ, van Bemmel JH, Kaihara S. IMIA Presi dential Retrospectives on Medical Informatics. In: Geissbuhler A, Haux R, Kulikowski CA. editors. 2007 IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 2007. Methods Inf Med. 2007. 46 Suppl 1: 165-75.
• 12 Lindberg DAB. The Computer and Medical Care. Springfield: Thomas; 1968
• 13 Lusted LB. Introduction to Medical Decision Making. Springfiled: Thomas; 1968
• 14 Anderson J, Forsythe JM. editors. Information Pro cessing of Medical Records. Amsterdam: North Holland; 1970
• 15 Zywietz C, Schneider B. editors. Computer Application on ECG and VCG Analyses. Amsterdam: North Holland; 1973
• 16 Moehr JR. History of Medical Informatics; English Translation of the Minutes of the Invitational Workshop Goals, Contents and Methods for Education in Medical Informatics. In: Haux R, Kulikowski CA. editors. 2004 Yearbook of Medi cal Informatics. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 2004: 210-16.
• 17 Anderson J, Forsythe JM. editors. MEDINFO 74. Amsterdam: North-Holland; 1974
• 18 Anderson J, Gremy F, Pages JC. editors. Education in Informatics of Health Personnel. Amsterdam: North Holland; 1974
• 19 Bailey NTJ, Aendov B, Tsanev R. editors. Math ematical Models in Biology and Medicine. Amsterdam: North Holland; 1974
• 20 Lindberg DAB, Reichertz PL, Reinhoff O. (eds) Lec ture Notes on Medical Informatics. Heidelberg and New York: Springer Verlag; 1974–1991.
• 21 Shires DB, Wolf H. editors. MEDINFO 77. Amsterdam: North-Holland; 1977
• 22 Proceedings The First Annual Symposium on Com puter Application in Medical Care. Long Beach: IEEE Computer Society; 1977
• 23 Lindberg DAB, Kaihara S. editors. MEDINFO 80. Amsterdam: North-Holland; 1980
• 24 van Bemmel JH, Ball MJ, Wigertz O. editors. MEDINFO 83. Amsterdam: North-Holland; 1983
• 25 Salamon R, Blum B, Jørgensen M. editors. MEDINFO 86. Amsterdam: North-Holland; 1986
• 26 Barber B, Cao D, Qin D, Wagner G. editors. MEDINFO 89. Amsterdam: North-Holland; 1989
• 27 Lun KC, Degoulet P, Piemme TE, Rienhoff O. editors. MEDINFO 92. Amsterdam: North-Holland; 1992
• 28 Greenes RA, Peterson HE, Protti DJ. editors. MEDINFO 95. Amsterdam: North-Holland; 1995
• 29 Cesnik B, McCray AT, Scherrer J-R. editors. MEDINFO 98. Amsterdam: IOS Press; 1998
• 30 Patel V, Rogers R, Haux R. editors. MEDINFO 01. Amsterdam: IOS Press; 2001
• 31 Fieschi M, Coiera E, LI Y-C. editors. MEDINFO 04. Amsterdam: IOS Press; 2004
• 32 Haux R, Kulikowski C. editors. 2006 IMIA - Year book of Medical Informatics: Assessing Information Technologies for Health. Methods Inf Med 45 Suppl. 1.
• 33 Kuhn KA, Leong T-Y, Warren J. MEDINFO 07. Amsterdam: IOS Press; In press 2007
• 34 Brender J, Scherrer JR, Christensen JP, McNair P. Editorial, Proceedings MIE 96.
• 35 IMIA Recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on Education in Health and Medical Informatics. Methods Inf Med 2000; 39: 267-77.
• 36 http://www.imia.org/ni/index.html
• 37 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. editors. 1993 Year-book of Medical Informatics: Sharing Knowledge and Information. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 1993
• 38 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. editors. 1994 Year-book of Medical Informatics: Advanced Communications in Health Care. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 1994
• 39 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. editors. 1995 Year-book of Medical Informatics: The Computer-based Patient Record. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 1995
• 40 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. editors. 1996 Year-book of Medical Informatics: The Integration of Information for Patient Care. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 1996
• 41 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. editors. 1997 Year-book of Medical Informatics: Computing and Collaborative Care. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 1997
• 42 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. editors. 1998 Year-book of Medical Informatics: Health Informatics and the Internet. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 1998
• 43 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. editors. 1999 Year-book of Medical Informatics: The Promise of Medical Informatics. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 1999
• 44 van Bemmel JH, McCray AT. editors. 2000 Year-book of Medical Informatics: Patient-centered Systems. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 2000
• 45 Haux R, Kulikowski C. editors. 2001 Year-book of Medical Informatics: Digital Libraries and Medicine. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 2001
• 46 Haux R, Kulikowski C. editors. 2002 Year-book of Medical Informatics: Medical Imaging Informatics. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 2002
• 47 Haux R, Kulikowski C. editors. 2003 Year-book of Medical Informatics: Quality of Health Care: Informatics Foundations. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 2003
• 48 Haux R, Kulikowski C. editors. 2004 Year-book of Medical Informatics: Towards Clinical Bio informatics. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 2004
• 49 Haux R, Kulikowski C. editors. 2005 Year-book of Medical Informatics: Ubiquitous Health Care Systems. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 2005
• 50 Geissbuhler A, Haux R, Kulikowski C. editors, 2007 Yearbook of Medical Informatics: Sustainable Health Care Systems. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 2007
• 51 www.health-informatics.org/ethicsmain.pdf