x-posted from HELINA-L, FYI:


Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000

-- To the [log in to unmask] mailing list on Health Informatics in Africa
-- from Mikko Korpela <[log in to unmask]>
-- More information at http://www.uku.fi/english/organizations/helina-l/

The next triennial MEDINFO conference - http://www.medinfo2001.org/ - in
London, 2-5 September 2001, will be the largest and most impressive global
event so far regarding the research and practice in information technology
and information management in healthcare.  "Everybody who is anybody will
be there", like a few thousand other health informatics actors, "whether a
clinician, administrator, academic, librarian, technologist, or vendor".

African experience in health informatics has not been too well represented
in previous MEDINFOs.  Now there are three ways of making a presence:

1. For research and development projects and individual researchers the
task ahead is straightforward:  Submit a paper latest by 1st December
2000!  The instructions for authors are available at the web address
http://www.medinfo2001.org/ .

2. A new innovation in this MEDINFO is the Global Village, which is part
of the exhibition but with a low threshold to participate.  The organizers
explain on their web pages that:  "We want the countries of the world to
be able to display what is going on in their nation.  ...  If you are
interested in being part of a Global Village delegation for your country
and contributing to the showcase for your country's developments in health
informatics contact Mike O'Flynn <[log in to unmask]>.  ...  It is
hoped that IMIA member bodies in the different countries will provide
encouragement and perhaps a contact point."

In Africa it may be feasible to think about a regional stand, since South
Africa is the only country with a full IMIA member body.  Maybe SAHIA
(South African Health Informatics Association) and IMIA's Regional
Coordinator for Africa, Dr Sedick Isaacs <[log in to unmask]> can
appoint a regional contact point for health informatics groups and
government bodies in other African countries which wish to prepare a
"showcase for the country's developments in health informatics"?

One continuously popping-up topic for a regional showcase and maybe for a
panel or workshop might be "how to develop and deploy appropriate software
and information systems for African primary healthcare, hospitals,
districts and regional/national healthcare management - the commercial,
open source, governmental, and inter-governmental initiatives".

3. The third way of benefiting from MEDINFO is of course to attend as a
participant.  As announced already on the HELINA-L, there are also a
limited number of bursaries available to "participants from developing
countries and countries in transition" (see the MEDINFO web pages for
details or contact Glyn Hayes <[log in to unmask]>).

So, now it is time to think:  What in my health informatics research / our
health informatics project / our university's health informatics education
/ our hospital's health information system / our district's health
information management procedures / our government's health informatics
initiatives / our company's health informatics products / etc.  is worth
the rest of the world to know about?

Mikko Korpela