Five articles, whose lead or senior authors are nationally known informatics leaders and members of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), appear in the Feb. 2010 issue of Health Affairs and provide a glimpse into the future of health care delivery in an increasingly information-driven era of health care in the developing world. These articles explain the critical role that information technology, and the health informatics work force will play in achieving overall health improvements globally. The articles further reflect innovative program initiatives AMIA and its membership currently have underway on a global scale:
The above articles, authored by prominent AMIA members, resulted from discussions examining e-Health, global partnerships, and local solutions during a month-long conference convened by the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, Italy, during the summer of 2008. More than 200 leaders, representing health care, technology, finance, policy, and government sectors, attended the meeting. Full text of the articles is online at www.healthaffairs.org .
"This series of articles—like discussions at the Bellagio meeting—focuses on how to leverage e-Health to advance health services in particularly underserved environments," says AMIA President & CEO Ted Shortliffe. "E-health applications to improve health care quality and access in resource-constrained portions of the world are an interest area that has grown into a major initiative for AMIA since then."
Health Affairs contributor William Hersh, MD, chair of the Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology at Oregon Health and Sciences University, and a popular AMIA distance-learning instructor, says, "The principles of informatics apply no matter whether you are in a developed or developing country: For e-Health to succeed, you need sound informatics to focus on information and how you can use it to improve health, healthcare, public health, or a specialized health-related practice area." He adds, "Technology is only a tool to help produce quality health outcomes; the required component for success is a well-trained work force."
AMIA is a member-supported professional association of leaders advancing biomedical and health informatics. AMIA supports the development and application of informatics in patient care, public health, human life sciences, education, research, administration, and health care-related policy. AMIA's 4,000 members advance the use of health information and communications technology with the ultimate goal of improving health and healthcare systems.
Health Affairs