Medinfo2010 Conference to harness IT for improved global health care

The triennial conference, organised by the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) in collaboration this year with the South African Health Informatics Association (SAHIA), is expected to attract around 1 500 health informatics professionals from across the globe.

This will be the first time the Medinfo conference is hosted in Africa, a continent where such collaborative think tanks have a pivotal role to play in boosting exposure to grassroots healthcare delivery and the underpinning health information systems supporting it.

IT has enormous potential for improving healthcare

Says Reinhold Haux, president of IMIA, "Information and communication technologies have enormous potential for improving the health and lives of individuals, especially in the developing world.

"From medical documentation, record-keeping and analysis to major health care systems and resources, the health informatics community is central in the exchange of practical experiences and expertise to find sustainable solutions to our existing global health challenges," he said.

The Medinfo2010 conference theme, Partnerships for effective e-Health Solutions: Innovative collaborations promote solutions to health challenges, places special emphasis on how new partnerships can encourage sustainable solutions to health challenges.

Haux said the theme would address a wide range of topics covering every aspect of health informatics solutions.

Global experts presenting at the conference include:

• Keynote speaker Dr Najeeb Al-Shorbaji, who is Director, Department of Knowledge Management and Sharing at the World Health Organization Headquarters (WHO/HQ) in Geneva;
  
• Dr Marion J. Ball, who serves on a number of boards in the area of health information technology, including her presidency of the IMIA, board membership of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), the American Health Information Management Systems (AHIMA/FORE), and co-chairmanship of the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Board.
  
• Prof Nada Lavrac, Head of the Department of Knowledge Technologies at the Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia; and Dr Ben Monga, Professor of Medical Informatics, Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since 2004.
  
• Dr Ben Monga, Professor of Medical Informatics, Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has encountered travel complications and a new speaker will be announced shortly in his place.

Medinfo2010 includes a special focus on the needs of and solutions from developing countries, in Africa and beyond. In addition, there will be a semi-plenary session looking at the effect of large scale health reform initiatives on health information systems.

For more information about the conference, visit www.medinfo2010.org.

Programme information.