Biomedical And Health Informatics Research Articles

Biomedical and health informatics teaching in Portugal: Current status

BackgroundThe domain of Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI) lies in the intersection of multiple disciplines, making it difficult to define and, consequently, characterise the workforce, training needs and requirements in this domain. Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, there isn’t any aggregated information about the higher education programmes in BMHI currently being delivered in Portugal, and which knowledge, skills, and competencies these programmes aim to develop. AimOur aim is to map BMHI teaching in Portugal. More specifically, our objective is to identify and characterise the: a.) programmes delivering relevant BMHI teaching; b.) geographical distribution and chronological evolution of such programmes; and c.) credit distribution and weight. MethodsWe conducted a descriptive, cross-sectional study to systematically identify all programmes currently delivering any core BMHI modules in Portugal. Our population included all graduate-level programmes being delivered in the 2021/2022 academic year in any Portuguese higher education institution. ResultsWe identified 23 programmes delivering relevant teaching in BMHI in Portugal. Of these, eight (35%) were classified as dedicated educational programmes in BMHI, mostly delivered in polytechnic institutes at a master’s level (5; 63%) and located preferentially in the northern part of the country (7). Currently, there are four programmes with potential for accreditation but still requiring some workload increase in certain areas in order to be eligible.

Recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on Education in Biomedical and Health Informatics: Second Revision

BackgroundThe purpose of educational recommendations is to assist in establishing courses and programs in a discipline, to further develop existing educational activities in the various nations, and to support international initiatives for collaboration and sharing of courseware. The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) has published two versions of its international recommendations in biomedical and health informatics (BMHI) education, initially in 2000 and revised in 2010. Given the recent changes to the science, technology, the needs of the healthcare systems, and the workforce of BMHI, a revision of the recommendations is necessary. ObjectiveThe aim of these updated recommendations is to support educators in developing BMHI curricula at different education levels, to identify essential skills and competencies for certification of healthcare professionals and those working in the field of BMHI, to provide a tool for evaluators of academic BMHI programs to compare and accredit the quality of delivered programs, and to motivate universities, organizations, and health authorities to recognize the need for establishing and further developing BMHI educational programs. MethodAn IMIA taskforce, established in 2017, updated the recommendations. The taskforce included representatives from all IMIA regions, with several having been involved in the development of the previous version. Workshops were held at different IMIA conferences, and an international Delphi study was performed to collect expert input on new and revised competencies. ResultsRecommendations are provided for courses/course tracks in BMHI as part of educational programs in biomedical and health sciences, health information management, and informatics/computer science, as well as for dedicated programs in BMHI (leading to bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree). The educational needs are described for the roles of BMHI user, BMHI generalist, and BMHI specialist across six domain areas – BMHI core principles; health sciences and services; computer, data and information sciences; social and behavioral sciences; management science; and BMHI specialization. Furthermore, recommendations are provided for dedicated educational programs in BMHI at the level of bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. These are the mainstream academic programs in BMHI. In addition, recommendations for continuing education, certification, and accreditation procedures are provided. ConclusionThe IMIA recommendations reflect societal changes related to globalization, digitalization, and digital transformation in general and in healthcare specifically, and center on educational needs for the healthcare workforce, computer scientists, and decision makers to acquire BMHI knowledge and skills at various levels. To support education in BMHI, IMIA offers accreditation of quality BMHI education programs. It supports information exchange on programs and courses in BMHI through its Working Group on Health and Medical Informatics Education.

Coverage of IMIA-recommended Competencies by Masters in Health Informatics Degree Programs in East Africa

ObjectiveThe International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) has provided recommendations on Education in Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI) as guidance on competencies relevant to education of BMHI specialists. However, it remains unclear how well these competencies have been adopted to guide emerging degree programs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We evaluated comprehensiveness of IMIA-recommended competency coverage by Masters in Health Informatics (MSc HI) programs in East Africa. Materials and methodsTwo investigators independently reviewed curricula for seven accredited MSc HI university programs in the East Africa region to extract covered competencies using an instrument based on the IMIA education recommendations. Descriptive statistics were used to determine competency coverage by institution and across institutions and by IMIA-defined competency domains. Duplication of competency coverage in courses within each curriculum was also evaluated. Multivariable logistic regression was used to test whether coverage of IMIA-recommended competencies differed between institutions. ResultsCohen’s Kappa for coding competencies within courses was 0.738 (95% CI, 0.713–0.764). Coverage of the 40 recommended required IMIA competencies by institutional curricula ranged from 25 (62.5%) to 39 (97.5%) (p < 0.0001), with only 18 (45%) of these competencies covered by all seven institutions. No significant variations in competency coverage were observed between the domains of information sciences (83.7%), health sciences (71.4%), and core BMHI competencies (83.5%) (p = 0.13). On average, each competency was covered by 3.06 courses in each curriculum (range 0 - 14). Curricula also contained 25 additional competencies not part of the IMIA recommendations, 15 of which were found only within the curriculum of a single institution. DiscussionThere is significant variability in coverage of IMIA-recommended competencies across MSc HI curricula evaluated, with observed duplication of competency coverage within each curriculum. The additional competencies uncovered that were not part of the IMIA-recommendations were not universally shared across institutions. ConclusionThe IMIA education recommendations provide a relevant, comprehensive reference guide for developing and improving health informatics degree programs within LMIC settings. Variability in competency coverage needs to be addressed for institutions within similar educational and labor regions.

Evaluation of a Training Program to Improve Organizational Capacity for Health Systems Analytics.

The Leadership in Analytics and Data Science (LEADS) course was evaluated for effectiveness. LEADS was a 6-month program for working biomedical and health informatics (BMHI) professionals designed to improve analytics skills, knowledge of enterprise applications, data stewardship, and to foster an analytics community of practice through lectures, hands-on skill building workshops, networking events, and small group projects. The effectiveness of the LEADS course was evaluated using the Kirkpatrick Model by assessing pre- and postcourse knowledge, analytics capabilities, goals, practice, class lecture reaction, and change in the size of participant professional networks. Differences in pre- and postcourse responses were analyzed with a Wilcoxon signed rank test to determine significance, and effect sizes were computed using a z-statistic. Twenty-nine students completed the course with 96% of respondents reporting that they were "very" or "extremely" likely to recommend the course. Participants reported improvement in several analytics capabilities including Epic data warehousing (p = 0.017), institutional review board policy (p = 0.005), and data stewardship (p = 0.007). Changes in practice patterns mirrored those in self-reported capability. On average, the participant professional network doubled. LEADS was the first course targeted to working BMHI professional at a large academic medical center to have a formal effectiveness evaluation be published in the literature. The course achieved the goals of expansion of BMHI knowledge, skills, and professional networks. The LEADS course provides a template for continuing education of working BMHI professionals.

Beginnings of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (AIM): Computational Artifice Assisting Scientific Inquiry and Clinical Art - with Reflections on Present AIM Challenges.

Summary Background : The rise of biomedical expert heuristic knowledge-based approaches for computational modeling and problem solving, for scientific inquiry and medical decision-making, and for consultation in the 1970’s led to a major change in the paradigm that affected all of artificial intelligence (AI) research. Since then, AI has evolved, surviving several “winters”, as it has oscillated between relying on expensive and hard-to-validate knowledge-based approaches, and the alternative of using machine learning methods for inferring classification rules from labelled datasets. In the past couple of decades, we are seeing a gradual but progressive intertwining of the two. Objectives : To give an overview of early directions in AI in medicine and threads of some subsequent developments motivated by the very different goals of scientific inquiry for biomedical research, and for computational modeling of clinical reasoning and more general healthcare problem solving from the perspective of today’s “AI-Deep Learning Boom”. To show how, from the beginning, AI was central to Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI), as a field investigating how to understand intelligent thinking in dealing professionally with the practice for healthcare, developing mathematical models, technology, and software tools to aid human experts in biomedicine, despite many previous bouts of “exuberant optimism” about the methodologies deployed. Methods : An overview and commentary on some of the early research and publications in AI in biomedicine, emphasizing the different approaches to the modeling of problems involved in clinical practice in contrast to those of biomedical science. A concluding reflection of a few current challenges and pitfalls of AI in some biomedical applications. Conclusion : While biomedical knowledge-based systems played a critical role in influencing AI in its early days, 50 years later they have taken a back seat behind “Deep Learning” which promises to discover knowledge structures for inference and prediction, both in science and for clinical decision-support. Early work on AI for medical consultation turned out to be more useful for explanation and teaching than for clinical practice, as had been originally intended. Today, despite the many reported successes of deep learning, fundamental scientific challenges arise in drawing on models of brain science, cognition, and language, if AI is to augment and complement rather than replace human judgment and expertise in biomedicine while also incorporating these advances for translational medicine. Understanding clinical phenotypes and how they relate to precision and personalization of care requires not only scientific inquiry, but also humanistic models of treatment that respond to patient and practitioner narrative exchanges, since it is the stories and insights of human experts which encourage what Norbert Weiner termed the ethical “human use of human beings”, so central to adherence to the Hippocratic Oath

Students’ competence as eHealth and eWelfare service developers based on the International Medical Informatics Association IMIA’s curriculum structure and design thinking

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.&#x0D; 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.&#x0D; 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.&#x0D; 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.

Guest Editorial IEEE BHI 2017

The IEEE International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics (BHI) is a special topic conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEEEMBS). BHI2017 was co-located with the annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition in Rosen Plaza Hotel, Orlando, Florida, USA during Feb. 16-19, 2017. The focus of BHI2017 was on for personalized, precision and preventive healthcare. Advancing health informatics has been identified as a grand challenge for engineering in the 21st century by the National Academy of Engineering. Managing and improving human health will require novel and creative informatics solutions to accelerate scientific discovery, translate innovations into successful treatments, re-engineer care practices and infrastructure, all with effective use of hardware and software. BHI2017 provided a unique forum showcasing enabling technologies in both methodology and clinical advancement in data/information acquisition, transmission, storage, retrieval, visualization, processing, analysis, interpretation and validation. In addition, it demonstrated how integrative informatics solutions can be employed in novel clinical applications, and how the deployment of integrated bioinformatics, with the support of Internet of Things (IoT), can facilitate precision and preventive medicine. In this special issue, six papers are selected to exhibit recent development in areas highlighted in BHI2017. The papers are briefly summarized here.

IMIA Accreditation of Biomedical and Health Informatics Education: Current State and Future Directions

Summary Objectives: The educational activities initiated by the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) have had global impacts and influenced national societies and local academic programs in the field of Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI). After the successful publication and dissemination of its educational recommendations, IMIA launched an accreditation procedure for educational programs in BMHI. The accreditation procedure was pilot tested by several BMHI academic programs in different countries and continents to obtain a global perspective. Methods: This paper presents an overview of IMIA quality assurance and accreditation procedures along with feedback on issues and problems which emerged during the pilot. Results: It appears that IMIA quality assurance and procedures worked quite well in different countries of Europe, the Middle East, South America, and Asia. These first experiences provided adequate information for adapting, modifying, and optimizing the procedures and finally for the planning of future activities. Conclusions: IMIA accreditation framework comprises a single set of standards that apply at various levels to both academic and professional BMHI programs. The pilot phase confirmed the robustness and generalizability of quality assurance standards and associated procedures on which IMIA accreditation is based at an international level.

IMIA Accreditation of Biomedical and Health Informatics Education: Current State and Future Directions.

Objectives: The educational activities initiated by the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) have had global impacts and influenced national societies and local academic programs in the field of Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI). After the successful publication and dissemination of its educational recommendations, IMIA launched an accreditation procedure for educational programs in BMHI. The accreditation procedure was pilot tested by several BMHI academic programs in different countries and continents to obtain a global perspective. Methods: This paper presents an overview of IMIA quality assurance and accreditation procedures along with feedback on issues and problems which emerged during the pilot. Results: It appears that IMIA quality assurance and procedures worked quite well in different countries of Europe, the Middle East, South America, and Asia. These first experiences provided adequate information for adapting, modifying, and optimizing the procedures and finally for the planning of future activities. Conclusions: IMIA accreditation framework comprises a single set of standards that apply at various levels to both academic and professional BMHI programs. The pilot phase confirmed the robustness and generalizability of quality assurance standards and associated procedures on which IMIA accreditation is based at an international level.

Research Strategies for Biomedical and Health Informatics. Some Thought-provoking and Critical Proposals to Encourage Scientific Debate on the Nature of Good Research in Medical Informatics.

SummaryBackgroundMedical informatics, or biomedical and health informatics (BMHI), has become an established scientific discipline. In all such disciplines there is a certain inertia to persist in focusing on well-established research areas and to hold on to well-known research methodologies rather than adopting new ones, which may be more appropriate.ObjectivesTo search for answers to the following questions: What are research fields in informatics, which are not being currently adequately addressed, and which methodological approaches might be insufficiently used? Do we know about reasons? What could be consequences of change for research and for education?MethodsOutstanding informatics scientists were invited to three panel sessions on this topic in leading international conferences (MIE 2015, Medinfo 2015, HEC 2016) in order to get their answers to these questions.ResultsA variety of themes emerged in the set of answers provided by the panellists. Some panellists took the theoretical foundations of the field for granted, while several questioned whether the field was actually grounded in a strong theoretical foundation. Panellists proposed a range of suggestions for new or improved approaches, methodologies, and techniques to enhance the BMHI research agenda.ConclusionsThe field of BMHI is on the one hand maturing as an academic community and intellectual endeavour. On the other hand vendor-supplied solutions may be too readily and uncritically accepted in health care practice. There is a high chance that BMHI will continue to flourish as an important discipline; its innovative interventions might then reach the original objectives of advancing science and improving health care outcomes.

50th Anniversary International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) History Working Group and Its Projects.

The IMIA History Working Group has as its first goal the editing of a volume of contributions from pioneers and leaders in the field of biomedical and health informatics (BMHI) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of IMIA's predecessor IFIP-TC4. This paper describes how the IMIA History WG evolved from an earlier Taskforce, and has focused on producing the edited book of original contributions. We describe its proposed outline of objectives for the personal stories, and national and regional society narratives, together with some comments on the evolution of Medinfo meeting contributions over the years, to provide a reference source for the early motivations of the scientific, clinical, educational, and professional changes that have influenced the historical course of our field.

The Inauguration Meeting of the EMBS International Conference on BHI Meets in China: Global Grand Challenge on Health Informatics

On 5–7 January, more than 420 world leaders and attendees representing approximately 40 countries/regions from academia, industry, and government gathered for the inauguration meeting of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics (BHI) in the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center, Shenzhen, China. Health informatics has been listed by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering as one of the 14 grand challenges for engineering of the 21st century, and BHI is a new special topic conference recently launched by the EMBS in this area. The conference, BHI, is named in conjunction with an EMBS flagship transaction, of which the title will soon be changed from IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine to IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, beginning in 2013.

Education in Biomedical and Health Informatics in the Web 3.0 Era: Standards for Data, Curricula, and Activities

Web 3.0 is transforming the World Wide Web by allowing knowledge and reasoning to be gleaned from its content. Describe a new scenario in education and training known as "Education 3.0" that can help in the promotion of learning in health informatics in a collaborative way. Review of the current standards available for curricula and learning activities in in Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI) for a Web 3.0 scenario. A new scenario known as "Education 3.0" can provide open educational resources created and reused throughout different institutions and improved by means of an international collaborative knowledge powered by the use of E-learning. Currently there are standards that could be used in identifying and deliver content in education in BMHI in the semantic web era such as Resource Description Format (RDF), Web Ontology Language (OWL) and Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). In addition, there are other standards to support healthcare education and training. There are few experiences in the use of standards in e-learning in BMHI published in the literature. Web 3.0 can propose new approaches to building the BMHI workforce so there is a need to build tools as knowledge infrastructure to leverage it. The usefulness of standards in the content and competencies of training programs in BMHI needs more experience and research so as to promote the interoperability and sharing of resources in this growing discipline.

Biomedical and Health Informatics Education and Research at the Information Technology Institute in Egypt

During the last decade, Egypt has experienced a revolution in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that has had a corresponding impact on the field of healthcare. Since 1993, the Information Technology Institute (ITI) has been leading the development of the Information Technology (IT) professional training and education in Egypt to produce top quality IT professionals who are considered now the backbone of the IT revolution in Egypt. For the past five years, ITI has been adopting the objective of building high caliber health professionals who can effectively serve the ever-growing information society. Academic links have been established with internationally renowned universities, e.g., Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in US, University of Leipzig in Germany, in addition those with the Egyptian Fellowship Board in order to enrich ITI Medical Informatics Education and Research. The ITI Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI) education and training programs target fresh graduates as well as life-long learners. Therefore, the program's learning objectives are framed within the context of the four specialization tracks: Healthcare Management (HCM), Biomedical Informatics Research (BMIR), Bioinformatics Professional (BIP), and Healthcare Professional (HCP). The ITI BMHI research projects tackle a wide-range of current challenges in this field, such as knowledge management in healthcare, providing tele-consultation services for diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases for underserved regions in Egypt, and exploring the cultural and educational aspects of Nanoinformatics. Since 2006, ITI has been positively contributing to develop the discipline of BMHI in Egypt in order to support improved healthcare services.

Recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on Education in Biomedical and Health Informatics - First Revision

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 threedimensional 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.

Education in Medical Informatics and Bioinformatics

Healthcare professionals are increasingly confronted in their work practice with computer-based applications, like the EPR and clinical decision support systems. The use of such systems may sometimes provide problems to clinicians but training in the use of these systems usually is enough to use the system without problems. But being able to use an information system does not imply that no problems will be encountered anymore. Problems can occur when the use of the system does not fit with the workflow of clinicians. When developing information systems clinicians should play a role. However, clinicians only can contribute when they also have enough knowledge about biomedical and health informatics (BMHI). So at least some of the clinicians should get education in this field. But it becomes increasingly clear that all clinicians should be introduced to BMHI. Since medical informatics is sometimes considered to be about computer technology the conclusion was that clinicians do not need such an education. Martin-Sanches and Gray [1] correctly state that this interpretation of BMHI devalues the academic discipline. Clinicians need to be taught medical informatics, but medical informatics interpreted as the science of information, information being data plus meaning. The question then is what subjects should be taught to medical students. IMIA, the International Medical Informatics Association, has recently published the first Revision of the Recommendations on Education in Biomedical and Health Informatics [2]. It supersedes the original Recommendations that were published 11 years ago. BMHI has changed so rapidly that the Revision was badly needed. The IMIA recommendations focus on educational needs for health care professionals to acquire knowledge and skills in information processing and information and communication technology. The IMIA recommendations describe the educational needs using a three dimensional framework. What needs to be taught depends on

Recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on Education in Biomedical and Health Informatics. First Revision.

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.

Competencies for a Well-trained Biomedical and Health Informatics Workforce

Biomedical and health informatics (BMHI) is an evolving discipline that needs to accompany the progression of healthcare by constantly updating the curriculum of its workforce [1]. In developing countries, capacity building in BMHI can be used to address capacity shortfalls, by providing electronic information and training, especially in rural and underserved areas, with robust clinical data for informed decision making [2, 3]. In October 2008, the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) Health and Medical Informatics Education Working Group (WG1) held a meeting entitled “Building Worldwide Capacity for the Health Informatics Workforce”. The meeting was hosted by the Department of Medical Informatics at Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Argentina. In addition to this event, the IMIA Latin American Countries (IMIA-LAC) organized the 3rd Latin American Meeting of Medical Informatics, the 2nd Argentinean Meeting of Medical Informatics, and the 2nd Argentinean Meeting of Nursing Informatics. As previous meetings organized by IMIA’s WG1 that had addressed important issues related to BMHI education [4], the goals of the Buenos Aires meeting were to provide both an exposition for identifying and harmonizing competencies and curricula for health and biomedical infor matics as well as provide a working meeting for IMIA WG1. There were more than 50 attendees from around the world and more than 20 papers were presented. There were several keynote presentations:

Rehabilitation for Apraxia

Graeme J. Hankey MD, FRCP Section Editor Limb or motor apraxia, which can occur after a stroke, is a disturbance of the conceptual ability to organize actions to achieve a goal. It can disrupt a person’s ability to perform everyday activities and to live independently but is not due to muscle weakness or sensory loss. This systematic review examined the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation aimed at apraxia after stroke. The primary outcome was at the level of disability (restricted activity), specifically whether any benefits were maintained beyond the end of the intervention. Short-term effects, impairment, mood, and quality-of-life measures were also investigated. A thorough literature search up …

Interdisciplinary Innovations in Biomedical and Health Informatics Graduate Education

Biomedical and health informatics (BHI) is a rapidly growing domain that relies on the active collaboration with diverse disciplines and professions. Educational initiatives in BHI need to prepare students with skills and competencies that will allow them to function within and even facilitate interdisciplinary teams (IDT). This paper describes an interdisciplinary educational approach introduced into a BHI graduate curriculum that aims to prepare informatics researchers to lead IDT research. A case study of the "gerontechnology" research track is presented which highlights how the curriculum fosters collaboration with and understanding of the disciplines of Nursing, Engineering, Computer Science, and Health Administration. Gerontechnology is a new interdisciplinary field that focuses on the use of technology to support aging. Its aim is to explore innovative ways to use information technology and develop systems that support independency and increase quality of life for senior citizens. As a result of a large research group that explores "smart home" technologies and the use of information technology, we integrated this new domain into the curriculum providing a platform for computer scientists, engineers, nurses and physicians to explore challenges and opportunities with our informatics students and faculty. The interdisciplinary educational model provides an opportunity for health informatics students to acquire the skills for communication and collaboration with other disciplines. Numerous graduate and postgraduate students have already participated in this initiative. The evaluation model of this approach is presented. Interdisciplinary educational models are required for health informatics graduate education. Such models need to be innovative and reflect the needs and trends in the domains of health care and information technology.