International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA)

About

The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) is an independent organization established under Swiss law in 1989. IMIA was originally established in 1967 as Technical Committee 4 of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP – www.ifip.org). In 1979, it evolved from a Special Interest Group of IFIP to its current status as a fully independent organization. IMIA continues to maintain its relationship with IFIP as an affiliate organization. IMIA also has close ties with the World Health Organization (WHO – www.who.int) as a NGO (Non Government Organization), and with the International Federation of Health Information Management (IFHIMA). IMIA is also a Liaison A category organisation in cooperation with ISO (ISO liaison).

Vision

The International Medical Informatics Association seeks to grow and nurture a collaborative global Biomedical and Health Informatics community that encourages and supports international initiatives to improve health for all

Mission

The mission of the International Medical Informatics Association is to bring people together from around the world to advance biomedical and health informatics science, education, and practice through mutual learning and exchange of knowledge, skills and ideas

Strategic Goals

The International Medical Informatics Association aims to fulfill its mission and realize its vision through a fourfold financially sustainable strategic platform that focuses on Advocacy, Collaboration, and Membership.

• Advocacy: To champion the recognition and growth of the biomedical and health informatics profession with professional and governmental organizations.
• Collaboration: To promote the cross-fertilization of health informatics knowledge and skills across academic, professional, and geographical boundaries, while serving as the catalyst for ubiquitous worldwide health information infrastructures for patient care and health research.
• Membership: To strengthen opportunities for participation in the Association by all members, across all membership categories.
• Promote Academic and Professional Excellence: To promote academic and research excellence and to exchange knowledge and evidence to prepare the next generation of health and biomedical informatics researchers and professionals

Purpose, Goals, Objectives

IMIA plays a major global role in the application of information science and technology in the fields of healthcare and research in medical, health and bio-informatics. The basic goals and objectives of the association are to:

• promote informatics in health care and research in health, bio and medical informatics.
• advance and nurture international cooperation.
• to stimulate research, development and routine application.
• move informatics from theory into practice in a full range of health delivery settings, from physician’s office to acute and long term care.
• further the dissemination and exchange of knowledge, information and technology.
• promote education and responsible behaviour.
• represent the medical and health informatics field with the World Health Organization and other international professional and governmental organizations.

In its function as a bridge organization, IMIA’s goals are:

• moving theory into practice by linking academic and research informaticians with care givers, consultants, vendors, and vendor-based researchers.
• leading the international medical and health informatics communities throughout the 21st century.
• promoting the cross-fertilization of health informatics information and knowledge across professional and geographical boundaries.
• serving as the catalyst for ubiquitous worldwide health information infrastructures for patient care and health research.