Alvaro Margolis, MD MS,  President
On behalf of the IMIA-LAC Board of Directors.
Period: 2006-2009

IMIA – International Medical Informatics Association

Year of foundation: 1968
Tens of countries as members
Regular activities
Medinfo, the world congress every 3 years
Working groups
Yearbook of Medical Informatics.

Medinfo 2007  www.medinfo2007.org

Brisbane/Australia, 20-24 August
Over 900 scientific reports
Presentations by several countries of our region (workshops, scientific papers, posters)
Meeting of participants from the region.
For the first time, there will be Spanish simultaneous translation of some topics.

IMIA-LAC

Year of  foundation: 1983
Created by Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and Mexico.
The Cuban Society of Medical Informatics (SOCIM) was created in 1970 and has 150 members.


Strategic objectives of IMIA_LAC for the period 2006-2009

1  To strengthen the network of health informatics societies in Latin America and the Caribbean.
2. To define the main areas to be promoted and the groups in charge of this task.

Objective: 1. To strengthen the network of health informatics societies

It is necessary that every country has a Health Informatics Society that is:
Multdisciplinary
Representative in and out of the country, and
Fitted with a strong link with academic and governmental institutions.

Objective 2:  To define the main areas to be promoted and the groups in charge of the task

1. Health information systems (particularly, clinical information systems)
2. Health informatics education.

Objective 2. Item 1 – Health information systems
•    Legal rule in each country
•    Standard adoption, and
•    Organizational change management and other critical areas for the success of these projects.

Example of a legal rule to be shared in the region – Uruguay

PROVISIONS ON THE UNIQUE ELECTRONIC MEDICAL HISTORY OF EACH PERSON.
http://www.presidencia.gub.uy/decretos/2003093001.htm

Objective
1st Article – It is stated that the setting of the unique electronic medical history of each person from his/her perinatal record to death must be considered of public interest.

Validity
“Every medical history in electronic support is an authentic documentation and as such, it will be valid and acceptable as an probative means, fully attesting to all legal effects...”

Purpose
According to the principle of purpuse, data contained in the medical history must not be used for purposes other than those of medical care.

Confidentiality
The principle of confidentiality undertakes to deal with health data of a person in a strictly confidential way.

Standards
•    Mandatory
•    Identity document, perinatal informatic system, CIE-X....
•    Recommended
•    HL7, DICOM....
Example of the standards adoption in Brazil
Process of certification of medical software providers.
http://www.sbis.org.br/

Objective 2. Item 2.  Health informatics education.

•    Health informatics literacy of health career students
•    Health informatics literacy of health professionals, and
•    Formation of health informatic professionals.
•    Master´s courses, Ph D courses and residency.

Examples of  work carried out in this area

•    Health informatics education
•    Adaptation of  AMIA 10 x 10 program to Argentina (introductory course to health informatics).
•    Teaching of this introductory course by e-learning modality.
       http://campus.hospitalitaliano.org.ar

Other areas of interest:

•    Medical imaging and PACS
•    Telemedicine
•    Computer-aided education
•    Nursing informatics
•    Bio-informatics
•    Public health informatics

Going from the present “budget zero” to a budget that allows fulfilling the stated objectives.