Towards Health for All: WHO and IMIA Intensify Collaboration

Summary

Objective: To intensify the collaboration between WHO, the World Health Organization, and IMIA, the International Medical Informatics Association.

Methods: Identifying key areas of collaboration and publishing a joint communiqué during Medinfo 2007 in Brisbane, Australia.

Results and Conclusions: WHO and IMIA have identified three keyareas of joint work for the next three years: the Global Observatory for eHealth, the use of I CT for the development of the health and health care workforce, and sharing eHealth products and services related to intellectual property for development.

Keywords

World Health Organization - WHO - International Medical Informatics Association - IMIA - health informatics - medical informatics - health for all

• References

• 1 Haux R, Kulikowski C. IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics 2006. Methods Inf Med. 2006 45 Suppl 1.
• 2 Bott OJ, Ammenwerth E, Brigl B, Knaup P. et al. The challenge of ubiquitous computing in health care: technology, concepts and solutions. Findings from the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics 2005. Methods Inf Med. 2005; 44: 473-479.
• 3 http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals. Last accessed September 4, 2007.
• 4 http://www.IMIA.org. Last accessed September 4, 2007.
• 5 http://www.WHO.int. Last accessed September 4, 2007. World Health Organization. eHealth Resolution. 58th World Health Assembly, Resolution28. May 25, 2005. Geneva: WHO; 2005. 58th World Health Assembly’s home page: http://www.who.int/gb/e/e_wha58.html. English version: http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_filesWHA58/WHA58_28-en.pdf. Last accessed September 4, 2007.
• 6 Healy JC. The WHO eHealth Resolution. eHealth for All by 2015?. Methods Inf Med. 2007; 46: 2-3.
• 7 Lorenzi N. Strategy in a fishbowl: an invitation to determine the shape of IMIA in 2015. Methods Inf Med 2006; 45: 235-239.
• 8 Lorenzi N. Towards IMIA 2015 – the IMIA Strategic Plan. Geissbuhler A, Haux R, Kulikowski C. IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics 2007. Methods Inf Med 2007; 46 (Suppl. 01) 1-5.
• 9 WHO. Global Observatory for eHealth. http://www.who.int/kms/initiatives/ehealth/en. Last accessed September 4, 2007.
• 10 WHO. Information and communication technologies for improving performance of the health workforce. http://www.who.int/hrh/en/. Last accessed September 4, 2007.
• 12 WHO. SHIPD – Sharing eHealth intellectual property for development. http://www.who.int/kms/about/units/en/index1.html. Last accessed September 4, 2007.