The International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics: An Academy of Excellence

The Field of Health Sciences Informatics

For the last 50 years, the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) has served as an important actor for the International community of biomedical and health informaticians. IMIA has been leading efforts to grow and nurture a collaborative global biomedical and health Informatics community that encourages and supports international initiatives to improve health for all. IMIA has brought researchers, scientists, educators, implementers, clinicians, and patients together from around the world to advance biomedical and health informatics science, education, and practice [[1]]. IMIA has achieved this goal through collaboration, development of guidelines and policies, learning, and exchange of knowledge, skills, and ideas.

The past decades have seen a tremendous growth and an increasing maturity in our field. Worldwide electronic health record implementation and health information exchange are on the rise requiring an ever growing, highly skilled, international labor force. Population health and the quantified health experience, as well as efforts in research informatics and translational / applied informatics have accelerated. As result, the maturing of the field has led to a growing group of international leaders and recognized experts in biomedical and health Informatics.

International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics

In 2015, the Board of Directors of the International Medical Informatics Association approved the creation of the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI). IAHSI will be a highly selected group of international leaders and experts in biomedical and health informatics.

IAHSI Mission and Membership

IAHSI will stimulate and direct research, play an important role in exchanging knowledge, educate the broader community, promote the field, advise governments and non-governmental organizations, mobilize governmental and non-profit support, produce policy documents (e.g., recommendations and position statements), and train the next generation of experts.

Similar to national Academies of Sciences, the International Academy IAHSI is intended to recognize excellent individual leaders, promote the exchange of methodologies, develop and foster new ideas, and encourage cross-border collaboration and sharing of resources. The Academy will also serve as an honor society that recognizes expertise in biomedical and health informatics internationally. Academy membership will be one of the highest honors in the international field of biomedical and health informatics. Election to membership carries the expectation of a candidate being recognized as a leader and promoter of the field. Elected members will hold the title of Member of the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics for life.

Election to the Inaugural Class of IAHSI

The IMIA Board of Directors asked Drs. Edward H. Shortliffe and Patrice Degoulet, with the help of IMIA President Hyeoun-Ae Park, President-Elect Christoph U. Lehmann, and IMIA CEO Elaine Huesing, to shepherd the nomination of the initial candidates and the election of the inaugural class of IAHSI. The committee prepared a ballot of almost 200 names of leaders in the field. These nominees were proposed by IMIA’s Honorary Fellows, board members, working group chairs, past officers, as well as past national leaders of IMIA member societies. All nominees were asked to select the founding members from the list of nominees. Because IMIA is an international body, the committee took steps to assure that the selected founding members represent all the regions of IMIA. Each nominee had up to 100 votes. The first 56 of any nominee’s votes were mandatory and had to be allocated in accordance with a distribution that reflects the size of the member organizations within IMIA: Africa (2), Asia-Pacific (14), Europe (20), Latin America (6), Middle East (4), and North America (10). The remaining votes could then be distributed across the various regions. Nominees were asked to spread their “at-large” votes across the regions rather than focusing on only one or two. Because of regional ties in the votes, the final number of elected members reached 120.

The Future of IAHSI

IMIA hopes to convene the inaugural class of IAHSI Members in August 2017 in Hangzhou, China, at the 16^th World Congress on Medical and Health Informatics (MEDINFO 2017). The new Academy will function as an elected body of members contained within IMIA and will elect a President, a treasurer, a secretary, and two members at large to serve as an executive committee.

IAHSI will have its own rules and regulations that guide the organization, its activities, and its relationship with the parent organization. The founding members will create the rules and regulations and will establish both the processes for nominating and electing new members in future years as well as the activities that will define the Academy and its role in the biomedical and health informatics community.

Inaugural Class of IAHSI Members

Please join the IMIA Board of Directors, the special task force, and IMIA staff in congratulating the members of the inaugural class of the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics ([Table 1]). You have achieved worldwide recognition and admiration by your peers and are truly the leaders and mentors of our field.

Table 1

Inaugural class of the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics

Abu-Hanna, Ameen	The Netherlands	Hersh, William	USA	Murray, Peter	UK
Adlassnig, Klaus-Peter	Austria	Holmes, John H.	USA	Musen, Mark	USA
Al Barrak. Ahmdd	Saudia Arabia	Hovenga, Evelyn	Australia	Nohr, Christian	Denmark
Al-Shorbaji, Najeeb	Jordan	Hripcsak, George	USA	Ohno-Machado, Lucila	USA
Altuwaijri, Majid	Saudia Arabia	Hullin, Carol	Chile	Otero, Paula	Argentina
Ammenwerth, Elske	Austria	Humphreys, Betsy L.	USA	Park, Hyeoun-Ae	South Korea
Andersen, Stig Kjaer	Denmark	Hussein, Rada	Egypt	Patel, Vimla	USA
Aronsky, Dominik	Switzerland	Junping, Zhao	China	Peterson, Hans	Sweden
Bakken, Suzanne	USA	Kimura, Michio	Japan	Pinciroli, Francesco	Italy
Bakker, Ab	The Netherlands	Koch, Sabine	Sweden	Protti, Denis J.	Canada
Ball, Marion	USA	Kohane, Isaac	USA	Rector, Alan	UK
Bates, David W.	USA	Kouematchoua Tchuitcheu, Ghislain	Cameroon	Rienhoff, Otto	Germany
Bellazzi, Riccardo	Italy	Kulikowski, Casimir	USA	Roberts, Jean	UK
Blobel, Bernd	Germany	Kushniruk, Andre	Canada	Roger France, Francis	Belgium
Borycki, Elizabeth	Canada	Leao, Beatriz de Faria	Brazil	Sabbatini, Renato Marcos Endrizzi	Brazil
Brennan, Patricia Flatley	USA	Lehmann, Christoph U.	USA	Safran, Charles	USA
Carr, Robyn	New Zealand	Leong, Tze Yun	Singapore	Saranto, Kaija	Finland
Chang, Polun	Taiwan	Li, Jack	Taiwan	Schneider, Werner	Sweden
Chute, Christopher	USA	Liaw, Siaw-Teng	Australia	Séroussi, Brigitte	France
Cimino, James	USA	Lindberg, Donald	USA	Shvo, Amnon	Israel
Coiera, Enrico	Australia	Lorenzi, Nancy	USA	Shahar, Yuval	Israel
De Moor, Georges	Belgium	Lovis, Christian	Switzerland	Shortliffe, Edward	USA
Degoulet, Patrice	France	Lun, KC	Singapore	Sittig, Dean F.	USA
Detmer, Don	USA	Luna, Daniel	Argentina	Stead, William W.	USA
Engelbrecht, Rolf	Germany	Mandil, Salah Hussein	Sudan	Szolovits, Peter	USA
Espinosa Lobato, J. Amado	Mexico	Mantas, John (Ioannis)	Greece	Takeda, Hiroshi	Japan
Fieschi, Marius	France	Maojo, Victor	Spain	Talmon, Jan	The Netherlands
Fox, John	UK	Marcelo, Alvin	Phillippines	Tanaka, Hiroshi	Japan
Friedman, Charles P.	USA	Margolis, Alvaro	Uruguay	Tierney, William	USA
Gardner, Reed M.	USA	Marin, Heimar de Fatima	Brazil	Toyoda, Ken	Japan
Geissbuhler, Antoine	Switzerland	Martin-Sanchez, Fernando	USA	van Bemmel, Jan	The Netherlands
Gogia, Shashi Bhushan	India	Masic, Izet	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Van der Lei, Johan	The Netherlands
Gonzalez Bernaldo de Quiros, Fernan	Argentina	McCray, Alexa	USA	Weber, Patrick	Switzerland
Greenes, Robert	USA	McDonald, Clem	USA	Westbrook, Johanna	Australia
Hammond, Ed	USA	Mihalas, George	Romania	Westbrooke, Lucy	New Zealand
Hanmer, Lyn	South Africa	Miller, Randolph (Randy)	USA	Wong, Chun-Por (CP)	China (Hong Kong)
Hannah, Kathryn	Canada	Moehr, Jochen	Canada	Wright, Graham	South Africa
Hannan, Terry	Australia	Moen, Anne	Norway	Wu, Ying	China
Hasman, Arie	The Netherlands	Moghaddam, Ramin	Iran	Wyatt, Jeremy	UK
Haux, Reinhold	Germany	Moura Jr, Lincoln de Assis	Brazil	Zvarova, Jana	Czech Republic

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge IMIA CEO Elaine Huesing, whose extraordinary efforts made the election possible.

• References

• 1 International Medical Informatics Association. Strategic Plan. 2017 Approved and in print.