Health Informatics Association Research Articles

Middle East and North African Health Informatics Association (MENAHIA): Technological initiatives for ‘One Health’

MENAHIA (Middle East and North African Health Informatics Association) is the International Medical Informatics Association chapter dedicated to the Middle East and North Africa region. This region is rapidly growing in terms of the use of health informatics or what has been recently coined “digital health”. Human health is highly affected by the health of the environment, animal health, food, nutrition, climate change, and many other factors that are beyond the biological or genetic structure of human beings. The impact of animal health and the health of the environment on people's health is an old phenomenon but recent reemerging and appearance of diseases have clearly demonstrated the link between these. The Novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that almost all of us have been suffering from is an example of this.A number of countries in the region have already shown the depth and the work that they do to integrate the concept of ‘One Health’ in the public health surveillance system as they have described the work that has been done to capture data from databases other than those dealing with human beings. The examples that were provided to monitor the health of animals, agriculture, environmental health, climate change, and man-made and natural disasters are just examples of what countries have been registering in their databases and informing the health authorities of these changes and emerging trends.

Health Informatics Association for Latin-America and Caribbean (IMIA-LAC)

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Middle East and North African Health Informatics Association (MENAHIA)

The region of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is diverse and retains a superior growth potential. It benefits from a privileged geographical location with big markets, a young and growing educated population, and competitive advantages in several industries. Regardless of their differences, countries face shared concerns, most notably in health. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, MENA countries enact reforms to create a more robust and inclusive digital health systems to increase growth, development, and integrity. Throughout the coordinated containment and mitigation efforts, most of the countries have integrated digital technologies into the health systems. These procedures include digital government initiatives, the introduction of digital health training courses, live video surgeries and virtual patient monitoring, rural and remote telemedicine programs, and the development of a national electronic health records (EHR) system. Each country took necessary actions to address equity, literacy, and development of resilient health systems. The nine featured countries in this report illustrate the diversity among the MENA region and account for major opportunities and achievements as well as promises and challenges that “digital health” presents for its populations.

Middle East and North African Health Informatics Association (MENAHIA)

The unforeseen pandemic of COVID-19 forced all countries worldwide to appreciate digital solutions and their potential contributions in managing such outbreaks. Countries began to share their knowledge and ongoing experiences on how to employ the latest technologies to trace infected cases, warn people on potential danger, increase social and population awareness, and how to provide effective and efficient telehealth services. MENAHIA (The Middle East and North Africa Health Informatics Association), established in 2018, as a new IMIA regional chapter which has started regional work in several areas of collaboration and knowledge sharing, particularly focused on the common basis of MENA countries’ needs towards health informatics solutions regarding COVID-19 crisis management. This article briefly presents health informatics activities and prospects by countries of the Region with a non-exclusive focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. Needless to say, not all the countries have reported using this platform, and some may have reported through other venues.

Health Informatics Association of Qatar (HIAQ): Building a Digital Health Ecosystem.

Qatar's digital health initiatives are growing through the development of research capacity, innovative technologies, and academic programs to serve the national health needs of the country. The digital health community of Qatar lacks the adequate representation of a professional body to serve the needs of the community. The purpose of this paper is to develop a strategic framework for the Health Informatics Association of Qatar (HIAQ) and present the preliminary findings of this effort. We utilized a multi-stage mixed methods approach in the development of HIAQ's strategic framework. We first reviewed the relevant literature, interviewed key stakeholders within the region, validated our findings with local stakeholders, and adapted the strategic directions to conform with Qatari laws. We present the purpose, organizational structure, vision, mission, and aims of HIAQ. Future work will engage the digital health community to further refine and adapt HIAQ's strategic direction to serve the local needs of Qatar.

Health Informatics Association for Latin-America and Caribbean (IMIA-LAC)

Health Informatics Association for Latin-America and Caribbean (IMIA-LAC)

Middle East and North African Health Informatics Association (MENAHIA)

SummaryOver the years, Health Informatics initiatives in the Middle East and North African region have been thriving with a number of different educational, scientific, professional, and technological developments taking place. Within the past year, Health Informatics initiatives in the region have focused on the educational and capacity building efforts. This regional report provides an overview of the wide spectrum of initiatives and developments that are taking place within the region which are supported by the Middle East and North African Health Informatics Association (MENAHIA).

Welcome to IMIA

President Dr. Christoph Lehmann, United States (2017–2019) President elect Dr. Sabine Koch, Sweden (2017–201 9) Past President Dr. Hyeoun-Ae Park, South Korea (2017–2019) Secretary Dr. Petter Hurlen, Norway (2015–2021) Treasurer Johanna Westbrook, Australia (2017–2020) Vice Presidents MedInfoDr. Patrick Weber, Switzerland (2017–2019)MembershipDr. Daniel Luna, Argentina (2018–2021)ServicesDr. Brigitte Seroussi, France (2016–2019)Special AffairsDr. Elizabeth Borycki, Canada (2016–2019)Working & Special Interest Groups Dr. Ying (Helen) Wu, China (2016–2019) CEO Elaine Huesing, Canada IMIA Web site: www.imia.org Regional Vice Presidents to IMIA APAMI: Asia Pacific Association for Medical Informatics Dr. Vajira Dissanayake, Sri Lanka EFMI: European Federation for Medical Informatics Dr. Christian Lovis, Switzerland HELINA: Pan African Health Informatics Association Dr. Ghislain Kouematchoua Tchuitcheu, Germany/Cameroon IMIA-LAC: Health Informatics Association for Latin America and the Caribbean Marcelo Lucio da Silva, Brazil MENAHIA: Middle East and North African Health Informatics Association Dr. Riyad Al Shammari, Saudi Arabia North American Region Andre Kushniruk, Canada IMIA Liaison Officers, ex officio WHO Liaison OfficerDr. Antoine Geissbuhler, SwitzerlandIFIP Liaison OfficerDr. Hiroshi Takeda, JapanISO Liaison OfficerDr. Michio Kimura, Japan

Middle East and North African Health Informatics Association (MENAHIA): A New Opportunity for the Region

During the 2018 IMIA General Assembly (GA) held on Oct 2018 in Sri Lanka, a new organization, the Middle East and North African Health Informatics Association (MENAHIA) was established as a regional non-governmental organization to promote Health Informatics in the region. Health Informatics activities in applications, education, and research have been growing in the Middle East and North African region for many years. Over the past year, health informatics initiatives within the region focused on the education sector and the workforce. The need to enhance the education delivery and methods is essential in promoting Health Informatics in the region as well as establishing master programs in many countries within the region.This paper provides an overview of the variety of initiatives that are occurring in the region and are endorsed by MENAHIA.

Helina

The HELINA Board put out a Call for Bids to host HELINA 2018 in June 2017. The Kenya Health Informatics Association presented a bid and was given approval to host the conference in Nairobi, Kenya from 1st - 5th October 2018. It is expected that the region will build on successes of past conferences and will make HELINA 2018 a formidable event.

Middle East and North African Health Informatics Association (MENAHIA): Building Sustainable Collaboration

SummaryThere has been a growing interest in Health Informatics applications, research, and education within the Middle East and North African Region over the past twenty years. People of this region share similar cultural and religious values, primarily speak the Arabic language, and have similar health care related issues, which are in dire need of being addressed. Health Informatics efforts, organizations, and initiatives within the region have been largely under-represented within, but not ignored by, the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA). Attempts to create bonds and collaboration between the different organizations of the region have remained scattered, and often, resulted in failure despite the fact that the need for a united health informatics collaborative within the region has never been more crucial than today. During the 2017 MEDINFO, held in Hangzhou, China, a new organization, the Middle East and North African Health Informatics Association (MENAHIA) was conceived as a regional non-governmental organization to promote and facilitate health informatics uptake within the region endorsing health informatics research and educational initiatives of the 22 countries represented within the region. This paper provides an overview of the collaboration and efforts to date in forming MENAHIA and displays the variety of initiatives that are already occurring within the MENAHIA region, which MENAHIA will help, endorse, support, share, and improve within the international forum of health informatics.

Helina Activities of the Pan African Health Informatics Association

A Call for Papers was sent out in November for full papers, work in progress, and case studies to be submitted for consideration for the HELINA 2017 conference. The HELINA Board appointed a scientific program committee and has been working with the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the Burundi Health Informatics Association to organise the 10th HELINA Conference in Bujumbura, Burundi, in 2017. The conference is expected to attract about 200 – 250 people from across the world. The title of the conference is “Integrated Health Information Management Resources for Global Healthcare Strategies”. The following topics are proposed as the main themes for the conference:

North American Medical Informatics (NAMI)

Canada’s Health Informatics Association (COACH) celebrated its 40th Anniversary in 2015. COACH connects, inspires, and educates the digital health professionals creating the future of health in Canada. Our members are a diverse community of accomplished, influential professionals working to make a difference in advancing healthcare through information technology.

IMIA-LAC Health Informatics Association for Latin-America and Caribbean

IMIA-LAC Health Informatics Association for Latin-America and Caribbean

HealthAchieve2010 partners with Canada’s Health Informatics Association (COACH) to Grow eHealth Track (Canada)

HealthAchieve2010 partners with Canada’s Health Informatics Association (COACH) to Grow eHealth Track (Canada)

Experiences from Health Information System Implementation Projects Reported in Canada Between 1991 and 1997

Canada’s Health Informatics Association has been hosting annual conferences since the 1970’s as a way of bringing information systems professionals, health practitioners, policy makers, researchers and industry together to share their ideas and experiences in the use of information systems in the health sector. This paper describes our findings on the outcome of information systems implementation projects reported at these conferences in the 1990s. Fifty implementation projects published in the conference proceedings were reviewed and the authors or designates of 24 of these projects were interviewed. The overall experiences, which are consistent with existing implementation literature, suggest the need for organizational commitment; resource support and training; managing project, change process and communication; organizational/user involvement and teams approach; system capability; information quality; and demonstrable positive consequences from computerization.