Across the Globe: Connected Care, Big Data, Interoperability.

Abstract

It is always gratifying to have one's thoughts and ideas confirmed by others, especially in an international setting. In early July, I was fortunate to attend the 13th International Congress in Nursing Informatics (NI2016-http://ni2016.org/). It was a marvelous experience, with opportunities to visit with old friends, make new friends, and learn about the latest research on Connected Care.The meetings took place under the purview of the International Medical Informatics Association's Nursing Informatics Special Interest Group (NI-SIG). IMIA is an association of associations from various countries and the world body for health and biomedical informatics. Congress typically takes place every few years and is held in various countries. In the early days, the intent was to jumpstart the discipline of informatics in the host country. I have attended since 1988.Once a country's membership is established, nursing informatics specialists are approached to beapartofthe NI-SIG, whosegoal isto foster collaboration among nurses and interested others to facilitate development in the field. overall aim is to share knowledge, experience, and ideas with nurses and health care providers worldwide about the practice of nursing informatics and the benefits of enhanced information management. NI-SIG has been in existence since 1982, and there are currently 29 member countries. For the past four years, I have served as the US country representative.eHEALTH FOR ALLThe theme of the 13th International Congress was for All: Every Level Collaboration From Project to Realization. Opening remarks were given by several dignitaries, including the Minister of Health Geneva, the CEO of the International Council of Nursing, World Health Organization representatives, and ehealth directors. Connected Health, Data, and Interoperability were common themes in nearly 400 paper's, poster, and panel presentations and six keynote addresses.Carmen Laplaza Santos, deputy head of unit health and wellbeing, DG Communications Networks, Content, and Technology, presented her keynote on deploying ehealth, with nurses as essential partners. She described the health ecosystem and the need for nurses to be part of ehealth initiatives. Santos showed a brief video (https://youtu.be/_i5yfhLeRoI), which introduced us to ENS4Care: Evidence-Based Guidelines for Nurses and Social Care Workers for the Deployment of eHealth Services (http:// www.ens4care.eu/).Another keynote address was delivered by Judy Murphy, chief nursing officer, IBM Global Healthcare, on behalf of Dr. Marilyn Chow, vice president, National Patient Care Services and Innovation, Kaiser Permanente, who was unable to attend. title was Reimagining Care Delivery: Power of Nursing Informatics. International Council of Nursing CEO Dr. Frances Hughes spoke on The Power of Data for Change. Dave deBronkart (aka e-Patient Dave), spoke on How e-Patients Are Changing Health Care. Christian Lovis, professor of clinical informatics at the University of Geneva and the Geneva University Hospitals, presented on Big Data and Health: Hopes and Challenges.My favorite keynote, e-Health: Global Nursing for Global Citizen, was presented by Heimar de Fatima Marin, director of the Graduate Program in Health Informatics at the Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP), who reminded us that caring for people will never be obsolete. Several of the keynote presentations are available on the NI2016 website (http://ni2016.org/power-point-presentations/). All congress proceedings are accessible at IOS Press (http://ebooks. iospress.nl/ISBN/978-1 -61499-658-3).CONTESTS AND COMPETITIONSTwo new events at the congress were the Wearable Fashion Show and the Student Design contest. fashion show demonstrated how far we have come in wearable devices as well as smart shirts and smart shoes. Internet of Things has opened the door to many products that promote health and wellness while monitoring and providing guidance. …