scholarly journals The Development of the IMIA Knowledge Base

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Wright

Background: The discipline of health or medical informatics is relatively new in that the literature has existed for only 40 years. The British Computer Society (BCS) health group was of the opinion that work should be undertaken to explore the scope of medical or health informatics. Once the mapping work was completed the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) expressed the wish to develop it further to define the knowledge base of the discipline and produce a comprehensive internationally applicable framework. This article will also highlight the move from the expert opinion of a small group to the analysis of publications to generalise and refine the initial findings, and illustrate the importance of triangulation.Objectives: The aim of the project was to explore the theoretical constructs underpinning the discipline of health informatics and produce a cognitive map of the existing understanding of the discipline and develop the knowledge base of health informatics for the IMIA and the BCS.Method: The five-phase project, described in this article, undertaken to define the discipline of health informatics used four forms of triangulation.Results: The output from the project is a framework giving the 14 major headings (Subjects) and 245 elements, which together describe the current perception of the discipline of health informatics.Conclusion: This article describes how each phase of the project was strengthened, through using triangulation within and between the different phases. This was done to ensure that the investigators could be confident in the confirmation and completeness of data, and assured of the validity and reliability of the final output of the ‘IMIA Knowledge Base’ that was endorsed by the IMIA Board in November 2009.

2002 ◽  
Vol 41 (02) ◽  
pp. 86-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Douglas ◽  
Evelyn Hovenga

Summary Objectives: On behalf of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), its Working Group 1 (WG1) addresses health and medical informatics education. Methods: As part of its mission, WG1 developed recommendations for competencies, describing a three-dimension framework and defining learning outcomes. Results: Officially approved by IMIA in 1999, the recommendations have been translated into seven languages. In 2001, WG1 charged a small group with updating the recommendations and consider the work undertaken by others to develop competencies. Additional work underway in support of the recommendations includes a literature review to help extract the fundamental competencies from the recommendations. To ensure the highest quality of input in the updated recommendations, WG1 is issuing a call for participation to the international informatics community. Conclusions: Further work with the competencies will result in updated IMIA guidelines. These are expected to support the creation of a virtual university for health and medical informatics.


2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (01) ◽  
pp. 145-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Altwaijiri ◽  
B. Aldosari

Summary Objective The purpose of this paper is to describe the Health Informatics Master Program at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods We have reviewed health informatics master programs worldwide with more emphasis on the recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association on education in health informatics, research, and faculty/trainee participation at KSAU-HS. Results An applied health informatics master program has been designed where graduates will be able to deploy information and communication technology in support of health systems’ processes. This is due to the fact that most of health organizations are driven by information and communication technology. The program embodies the features of effective applied health informatics master programs recommended by the International Medical Informatics Association on education in health informatics and delineated as curricula integrating three areas of knowledge and skills: 1) Methodology and technology for the processing of data, information and knowledge in medicine and healthcare, 2) Medicine, health and biosciences, and 3) Informatics/ computer science, mathematics and biometry. Conclusions The health informatics master program (MHI) immerses students in the multidisciplinary field of health informatics education. Graduates of the MHI program will be wellprepared informaticians for leadership positions, able to meet the increasing demands in the field of health informatics to manage, plan, develop, and provide expert consultations to the healthcare sectors.


2010 ◽  
Vol 49 (02) ◽  
pp. 105-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Ammenwerth ◽  
G. Demiris ◽  
A. Hasman ◽  
R. Haux ◽  
W. Hersh ◽  
...  

Summary Objective: The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) agreed on revising the existing international recommendations in health informatics /medical informatics education. These should help to establish courses, course tracks or even complete programs in this field, to further develop existing educational activities in the various nations and to support international initiatives concerning education in biomedical and health informatics (BMHI), particularly international activities in educating BMHI specialists and the sharing of courseware. Method: An IMIA task force, nominated in 2006, worked on updating the recommendations’ first version. These updates have been broadly discussed and refined by members of IMIA’s National Member Societies, IMIA’s Academic Institutional Members and by members of IMIA’s Working Group on Health and Medical Informatics Education. Results and Conclusions: The IMIA recommendations center on educational needs for health care professionals to acquire knowledge and skills in information processing and information and communication technology. The educational needs are described as a three-dimensional framework. The dimensions are: 1) professionals in health care (e.g. physicians, nurses, BMHI professionals), 2) type of specialization in BMHI (IT users, BMHI specialists), and 3) stage of career progression (bachelor, master, doctorate). Learning outcomes are defined in terms of knowledge and practical skills for health care professionals in their role a) as IT user and b) as BMHI specialist. Recommendations are given for courses /course tracks in BMHI as part of educational programs in medicine, nursing, health care management, dentistry, pharmacy, public health, health record administration, and informatics /computer science as well as for dedicated programs in BMHI (with bachelor, master or doctor degree).To support education in BMHI, IMIA offers to award a certificate for high-quality BMHI education. It supports information exchange on programs and courses in BMHI through its Working Group on Health and Medical Informatics Education.


2000 ◽  
Vol 39 (03) ◽  
pp. 267-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Knaup ◽  
Reinhold Haux

AbstractThe International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) agreed on international recommendations in health informatics/medical informatics education. These should help to establish courses, course tracks or even complete programs in this field, to further develop existing educational activities in the various nations and to support international initiatives concerning education in health and medical informatics (HMI), particularly international activities in educating HMI specialists and the sharing of courseware.The IMIA recommendations centre on educational needs for healthcare professionals to acquire knowledge and skills in information processing and information and communication technology. The educational needs are described as a three-dimensional framework. The dimensions are: 1) professionals in healthcare (physicians, nurses, HMI professionals, …), 2) type of specialisation in health and medical informatics (IT users, HMI specialists) and 3) stage of career progression (bachelor, master, …).Learning outcomes are defined in terms of knowledge and practical skills for healthcare professionals in their role (a) as IT user and (b) as HMI specialist. Recommendations are given for courses/course tracks in HMI as part of educational programs in medicine, nursing, healthcare management, dentistry, pharmacy, public health, health record administration, and informatics/computer science as well as for dedicated programs in HMI (with bachelor, master or doctor degree).To support education in HMI, IMIA offers to award a certificate for high quality HMI education and supports information exchange on programs and courses in HMI through a WWW server of its Working Group on Health and Medical Informatics Education (http://www.imia.org/wg1).


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (01) ◽  
pp. 065-068
Author(s):  
Meryl Bloomrosen ◽  
Eta S. Berner ◽  

Objectives: To summarize the recent literature and research and present a selection of the best papers published in 2018 in the field of Health Information Management (HIM) and Health Informatics. Methods: A systematic review of the literature was performed, with the help of a medical librarian, by the two editors of the HIM section of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) Yearbook. In order to include papers that would address the special theme of the 2019 Yearbook on artificial intelligence (AI) as well as HIM, we searched bibliographic databases for HIM-related papers with an AI focus using both Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) descriptors and keywords in titles and abstracts. A shortlist of 15 candidate best papers was first selected by section editors before being peer-reviewed by independent external reviewers. Results: While there were a significant number of manuscripts that addressed issues relevant to HIM, there were virtually none with MeSH headings indicating an HIM focus. Manuscripts that were considered related to the HIM field in terms of the practice of health information management as well as the profession included those that examined using machine learning and other AI approaches to identify protected health information in clinical text to aid with de-identification, automated coding approaches to translate free-text into standardized codes, and natural language processing approaches to extract clinical data to assist with populating cancer and other registries. Conclusions: The papers discussed in the HIM section reflect the special theme of the use of AI in healthcare on issues particularly relevant to the field of HIM. This synopsis discusses these papers and recommends that HIM practitioners be more involved in research and that researchers in AI and related areas recognize the applicability and relevance of their work to the field of HIM.


2010 ◽  
Vol 49 (03) ◽  
pp. 305-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Haux ◽  
P. J. Murray

Summary Background: Education has long been, and continues to be, one of the major thematic areas of the activities of IMIA, the International Medical Informatics Association. Objective: To report on IMIA’s past activities and to discuss possible future perspectives on IMIA’s role on biomedical and health informatics education. Methods: Summarizing past activities by searching in reports and publications. Making suggestions for wider discussion on possible future activities. Results: Since its inception, IMIA has been active in the field of education, mainly through its working group on education. Among other activities, nine working conferences have been held, many of which have resulted in publications as outcomes, which have helped to exchange knowledge on the development of high-quality health and biomedical informatics education. Recommendations on education in health and medical informatics were endorsed by IMIA in 1999, and a revised version is currently in preparation. Conclusions: IMIA should continue to stimulate the exchange of knowledge on a range of aspects of health and biomedical informatics education in the countries and regions of the world, with IMIA’s academic institutional members playing an increasing role. Establishing procedures for the international accreditation of high-level programs in health and biomedical informatics through IMIA is one of several areas that need to be discussed as IMIA plans and develops its future activities.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-29
Author(s):  
Outi Maria Ahonen ◽  
Ulla-Mari Kinnunen ◽  
Jarmo Heinonen ◽  
Gun-Britt Lejonqvist ◽  
Elina Rajalahti ◽  
...  

Multidisciplinary cooperation is required to develop digital health and welfare services. The aim of this article is to determine the eHealth and eWelfare service design competences that multidisciplinary students need to be able to develop digital services in health and social care. A secondary aim is to develop a measurement tool based on the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) curriculm for future assessment of such competences. Based on basic descriptive statistics results show that most students felt they have good skills in e-communication, basic IT, literature retrieval and research methods; some students, however, reported that they lack these basic skills. It is crucial that instructors be aware of student variations so that they can support the learning of the basics and further the biomedical and health informatics (BMHI) and design thinking (DT) competences. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to determine the principal components (PC) from measured responses to BMHI and DT sections. Data were collected from 64 students. The components were explored and compared to constructs used to design the original measurement tool. A twenty-component structure showed the simplest solution and explained (80%, 68%, 73%) of variances in BMHI and 83% DT competences, respectively, in the measurement tool, each part of which was analysed by PCA. The PC can be the core areas in different professions taking part in developing eHealth and eWelfare. The parts of measurement tools relied on item reliability and content validity testing. This study provided a base for further measurement tool revision and theoretical testing.


1997 ◽  
Vol 36 (02) ◽  
pp. 79-81
Author(s):  
V. Leroy ◽  
S. Maurice-Tison ◽  
B. Le Blanc ◽  
R. Salamon

Abstract:The increased use of computers is a response to the considerable growth in information in all fields of activities. Related to this, in the field of medicine a new component appeared about 40 years ago: Medical Informatics. Its goals are to assist health care professionals in the choice of data to manage and in the choice of applications of such data. These possibilities for data management must be well understood and, related to this, two major dangers must be emphasized. One concerns data security, and the other concerns the processing of these data. This paper discusses these items and warns of the inappropriate use of medical informatics.


1994 ◽  
Vol 33 (03) ◽  
pp. 246-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Haux ◽  
F. J. Leven ◽  
J. R. Moehr ◽  
D. J. Protti

Abstract:Health and medical informatics education has meanwhile gained considerable importance for medicine and for health care. Specialized programs in health/medical informatics have therefore been established within the last decades.This special issue of Methods of Information in Medicine contains papers on health and medical informatics education. It is mainly based on selected papers from the 5th Working Conference on Health/Medical Informatics Education of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), which was held in September 1992 at the University of Heidelberg/Technical School Heilbronn, Germany, as part of the 20 years’ celebration of medical informatics education at Heidelberg/Heilbronn. Some papers were presented on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the health information science program of the School of Health Information Science at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Within this issue, programs in health/medical informatics are presented and analyzed: the medical informatics program at the University of Utah, the medical informatics program of the University of Heidelberg/School of Technology Heilbronn, the health information science program at the University of Victoria, the health informatics program at the University of Minnesota, the health informatics management program at the University of Manchester, and the health information management program at the University of Alabama. They all have in common that they are dedicated curricula in health/medical informatics which are university-based, leading to an academic degree in this field. In addition, views and recommendations for health/medical informatics education are presented. Finally, the question is discussed, whether health and medical informatics can be regarded as a separate discipline with the necessity for specialized curricula in this field.In accordance with the aims of IMIA, the intention of this special issue is to promote the further development of health and medical informatics education in order to contribute to high quality health care and medical research.


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