EDU – Education

Chair:

  • Kaija Saranto

Co-Chair:

Background

The introduction of eHealth applications as well as of the Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI) discipline into the health care domain requires high quality educated and trained health care professionals in the field. Education is considered as the most appropriate tool to improve greatly the acceptance attitudes and behavior of the professionals working in the healthcare environment towards eHealth applications. EFMI is well aware of the importance of Education and in its history the working group in education was the first working group to be established. Since education has an international value and there no borders in its objectives, the working group seeks to achieve International cooperation in its main objectives which they may be summarized as follows: information on existing programs and curricula in the field, dissemination of experiences in implementing educational programs, evaluation, and accreditation of programs, and finally certification of users in BMHI knowledge and skills. 

Main Objectives

  • to disseminate and exchange information on Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI) programs and courses
  • to exchange experiences of how BMHI is taught and to improve the implementation
  • to utilize the developed by AC2 database on programs in BMHI education
  • to disseminate and participate in developing international recommendations on BMHI education
  • to support BMHI courses and exchange of students and teachers within the EFMI countries
  • to promote and foster the accreditation process of BMHI programs in Europe based on AC2 Initiative
  • to assist the AC2 process of certification of knowledge and skills of users in BMHI
  • to investigate the possibility of establishing summer courses organised by the WG EDU

Website The Working Group website is hosted at the address: http://efmi-wgedu.bmhi-edu.org

Activities

  • Enhancing the cooperation between EFMI and IMIA in the accreditation process
  • Providing an operational website for the WG EDU (http://efmi-wgedu.bmhi-edu.org).
  • A number of educational related papers were presented during the International Conference in Informatics, Management and Technology in Healthcare on 2013-2019.
  • A Educational Plenary Panel Session was organized at MIE2018.
  • A workshop of the WG EDU was organised at MIE2017.
  • WG/Panel meetings was organised at Medinfo2017. 
  • A workshop of the WG EDU was organised at MIE2016 in Munich.
  • A workshop/panel of the WG EDU in MIE was organised 2014 in Istanbul.
  • Investigating the logistics in supporting a summer course in BMHI.

Future Activities

  • Enhancing the Accreditation process in EFMI
  • Providing a database of courses of European institutions, http://efmi-ac2.bmhi-edu.org, hosted at WG EDU website
  • Exploring Certification process for Health Informatics

Relevant Publications

  • Arief M, Rissanen S, Saranto K. Influence of previous work experience and education on Internet use of people in their 60s and 70s. J Innov Health Inform. 2018 Oct 18;25(3):132-141. doi: 10.14236/jhi.v25i3.868.
  • Ahonen O, Kinnunen UM, Lejonqvist GB, Apkalna B, Viitkar K, Saranto K. Identifying Biomedical and Health Informatics Competencies in Higher Education Curricula. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2018;251:261-264.
  • Kinnunen UM, Saranto K. A Synthesis of Students’ Theses in the Accredited HHSI Master’s Programme. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2018;247:815-819.
  • Saranto K, Kinnunen UM, Kivekäs E, Huusko J, Kuusisto-Niemi S. The Guiding Role of a Paradigm in Informatics Education and Research. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2017;238:235-238.
  • Borycki EM, Cummings E, Kushniruk AW, Saranto K. Integrating Health Information Technology Safety into Nursing Informatics Competencies. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2017;232:222-228.
  • Mantas J. Biomedical and Health Informatics Education – the IMIA Years. Yearb Med Inform. 2016 Aug 2;Suppl 1:S92-S102. doi: 10.15265/IY-2016-032.
  • Marcano-Cedeño A, Wageih MA, Gómez EJ, Mantas J. IMIA Dynamic Accreditation Procedure: Suggestions, Simplicity and Efficiency. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2015;213:115-8.
  • Kolokathi A, Mantas J. Developing an Institutional Repository of Digital Health Information Content. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2015;213:183-6
  • Manifava E, Kolokathi A, Mantas J. Exploring the biomedical and health informatics educational programs in Europe. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2014;202:67-70.
  • Friedman C, Hasman A, Holmes J, Mantas J, Saranto K. International Perspectives on Program Accreditation for Professional Education in Informatics. MedInfo 2013: 1241
  • Hasman A, Mantas J. IMIA Accreditation of Health Informatics Programs. Healthc Inform Res. 2013 Sep;19(3):154-61. doi: 10.4258/hir.2013.19.3.154. Epub 2013 Sep 30
  • Mantas J, Hasman A, Shortliffe EH. Assessment of the IMIA educational accreditation process. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2013;192:702-6.
  • Zogas S, Lialiou P, Gallos P, Mantas J. The e-learning programs in Greek Universities: a literature review. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2013;190:89-91.
  • Lialiou P, Mantas J. Evaluation of health professionals in the use of Internet information retrieval systems in health: a literature review. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2013;190:80-2.
  • Mantas J, Ammenwerth E, Demiris G, Hasman A, Haux R, et al. Recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on education in biomedical and health informatics. Methods Inf Med 49 (2010): 105-120.

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If you want to become a member of the EDU Working Group, please contact with the Chair of the Working Group