Health Informatics Laboratory

Chair:
Professor John Mantas, Health Informatics Laboratory, University of Athens, Greece
E-mail: jmantas[at]nurs.uoa[dot]gr

Co-Chair:
Emeritus Professor Arie Hasman, Department of Medical Informatics, University of Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
E-mail: a.hasman[at]amc.uva[dot]nl

Website: http://en.hil.nurs.uoa.gr/wgedu.html

Main Objectives:

The introduction of eHealth applications as well as of the Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI) discipline into the health care domain requires high quality educated and trained health care professionals in the field. Education is considered as the most appropriate tool to improve greatly the acceptance attitudes and behaviour of the professionals working in the health care environment towards eHealth applications. EFMI is well aware of the importance of Education and in its history the working group in education was the first working group to be established. Since education has an international value and there no borders in its objectives, the working group seeks to achieve International cooperation in its main objectives which they may be summarised as follows: information on existing programs and curricula in the field, dissemination of experiences in implementing educational programs, evaluation, and accreditation of programs, and finally certification of users in BMHI knowledge and skills. A more detailed reference to the objectives can be found below:

• to disseminate and exchange information on Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI) programs and courses.
• to exchange experiences of how BMHI is taught and to improve the implementation
• to establish a database on programs and courses on BMHI education
• to produce international recommendations on BMHI education
• to support BMHI courses and exchange of students and teachers within the EFMI countries.
• to foster the accreditation process of BMHI programs in Europe.
• to explore the process of certification of knowledge and skills of users in BMHI
• to investigate the possibility of establishing summer courses organised by the WG EDU

Relevant Activities 2013:

• A panel discussion was accepted and organised during Medinfo 2013 in Copenhagen for the accreditation process. In the panel besides the chair and co-chair of the WG representatives of AMIA and IMIA joined exchanging experiences and presenting intended activities in accreditation. It was attended my more than a hundred participants.
• A paper prepared by the chair and co-chair was presented as oral presentation at Medinfo 2013 in Copenhagen regarding the accreditation process. It was well accepted.
• During the joint Board meetings of IMIA and EFMI the issue of representation of EFMI in the accreditation process of academic programs was raised and it was agreed that EFMI will be presented in the accreditation committee and EFMI will be mentioned in the accreditation certificate whenever an accreditation is taking place in an EFMI country.
• The activities of the WG EDU and important outcomes will be cited in the new website of the WG EDU.
• A number of educational related papers were presented during the International Conference in Informatics, Management and Technology in Healthcare in Athens on July 2013.

Activities planned for 2014:

• Enhancing the cooperation between EFMI and IMIA in the accreditation process
• Providing an operational website for the WG EDU
• Pending the final programme approval, participating in the Ministerial Conference in eHealth organised by the Ministry of Health in Athens on May 2014.
• Organising a workshop/panel of the WG EDU in MIE 2014 in Istanbul
• Investigating the logistics in supporting a summer course in BMHI

Relevant Publications 2013:

• Hasman A, Mantas J. IMIA Accreditation of Health Informatics Programs. Healthc Inform Res. 2013 Sep;19(3):154-61. doi: 10.4258/hir.2013.19.3.154. Epub 2013 Sep 30
• Mantas J, Hasman A, Shortliffe EH. Assessment of the IMIA educational accreditation process. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2013;192:702-6.
• Zogas S, Lialiou P, Gallos P, Mantas J. The e-learning programmes in Greek Universities: a literature review. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2013;190:89-91.
• Lialiou P, Mantas J. Evaluation of health professionals in the use of internet information retrieval systems in health: a literature review. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2013;190:80-2.
• Friedman C, Hasman A,  Holmes J, Mantas J, Saranto K. International Perspectives on Program Accreditation for Professional Education in Informatics. MedInfo 2013: 1241