Indian Association for Medical Informatics

 The Indian Association for Medical Informatics, or IAMI, is a professional society that plays a role in promoting and furthering the application of informatics in the fields of healthcare, bioscience and medicine in India. It was established in 1993.

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Goals and objectives

The objectives [1] of the IAMI are to sensitize the Indian medical community to the benefits of Information Technology (IT), bring about awareness and ensure greater utilization of IT in healthcare facilities across the length and breadth of India. The IAMI also aims to provide necessary assistance and guidance to other organizations to implement and reap the benefits of IT for health care. It supports introduction of computer literacy along with medical education, development of computerized as well as medical digital libraries, access to information and creation of databases. IAMI emphasizes on research and development of medical informatics as an independent discipline. It provides various communication and interaction channels among its members by means of e-groups and through publication of a scholarly journal mentioned below.

Affiliation

It is the Indian National Member at IMIA [2]

History

IAMI was registered in September 1993 with its Registered Office being the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences [3], in Hyderabad, India.

It has been organising a conference every two years on roles and applications of informatics in medicine, health and allied fields in various states of India.

The first biennial conference was held in 1995 at Hyderabad.

Second conference was held in 1997 at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

A major workshop was held in 2001 at NIMS, Hyderabad in lieu of third conference. Third conference of 1999 was postponed due to natural calamities.

The fourth conference was held in 2003 at PGIMER[4], Chandigarh.

A mid-conference was held in 2004 at the South-Eastern Railways Hospital, Kolkata.

Fifth conference was held in 2005 at Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences in Amritsar.

IAMI has conducted many beginners’ courses for doctors, nurses, paramedical personnel and computer professional class. This enabled the association in enrolling many hospitals, institutes and organizations as Institutional Life Members. It is aiming at making Medical Informatics as one of the elective subjects in the UG curriculum for all medical colleges in India and to get academic credits from the Medical Council of India and other autonomous bodies under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (India)[5], Government of India for all the delegates participating in the conferences, seminars and workshops organized by the association.

In 2001, it started a discussion group for Medical Informatics. Which has now grown as the de facto information source for medical informatics related activities in India both for its members as well as non-members. Its active members include almost the entire Who’s Who of medical informatics scene of India. IAMI got its own web site in 2002. Its Journal "Indian Journal of Medical Informatics" (IJMI, ISSN 0973-0397) was started in May 2004 [6].

Membership

IAMI membership consists of Personal, Institutional and Honorary Members [7].

Many of its key office bearers are part of several Government of India (GOI) initiatives in the areas of telemedicine, especially in the area of development of standards and guidelines for the practice of telemedicine, online medical education and electronic medical records or electronic health records.

Journal

It brings out the scientific journal called Indian Journal of Medical Informatics [8].

Upcoming Conference

The next Biennial Conference [9] of IAMI is scheduled to be held from November 16 - 17, 2007 at the Centre for Digital Health in Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre. [10]

Discussion group

Members of the association have an active discussion group where healthcare IT enthusiasts discuss topics of their interest.Several discussion threads run in parallel. There is also a "Topic of the month" which is the main focus of the discussion.