HEALTH AND MEDICAL INFORMATICS EDUCATION - PERSPECTIVES FOR THE NEXT DECADE

It is argued that the progress of information processing and informati on technology changes our societies. Examples are given that there is a significant economic relevance of information technology for medicin e and healthcare and for the qualify of healthcare as well. In order t o adequately pursue the goal of 'Transforming healthcare through innov ative use of information technology for the 21st century' (the topic o f the 6th International Conference on Health and Medical Informatics E ducation and of this special issue of the International Journal of Med ical Informatics), health professionals are needed who are well-educat ed in health informatics or medical informatics, respectively, Raising the scope and the quality of education in the field of health and med ical informatics would help to raise the quality and efficiency of hea lthcare. In this context the International Medical Informatics Associa tion (IMIA) and its working group 1 (WG1) on Health and Medical Inform atics Education can make a contribution by disseminating information a nd by elaborating recommendations on courses and programs in health an d medical informatics. For this purpose IMIA WG1 has established a WWW site (http://www.imia.org/wg1) with information on health and medical informatics programs and courses. All teachers and institutions are e ncouraged to submit information about courses and programs offered and to set pointers to their own WWW sites. In addition, a mailing list w as installed to facilitate communication between all persons involved in health and medical informatics education. For subscription, a messa ge has to be sent to 'listserv@relay.urz.uni-heidelberg.de'. The body of the message should read 'SUBSCRIBE IMIA-WG1'. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sci ence Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.