International Medical Informatics Association

''This article is about the medical organization. For the Aegean islets, see Imia/Kardak.''

IMIA or the International Medical Informatics Association is an independent organisation that plays a role in promoting and furthering the application of information science in modern society, particularly in the fields of healthcare, bioscience and medicine. It was established in 1967 as a technical committee of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). It became an independent organisation in 1987 and was established under Swiss law in 1989.

Goals and objectives

 * the promotion of informatics in health care and biomedical research
 * the advancement of international cooperation
 * the stimulation of research, development and education
 * the dissemination and exchange of information

Inherent in this mission is to bring together, from a global perspective, scientists, researchers, vendors, consultants and suppliers in an environment of cooperation and sharing. The international membership network of national member societies, IMIA regions, corporate and academic institutional members, and working and special interest groups, constitute the "IMIA family".

IMIA organises various conferences and events around the world and is currently focusing on "bridging the knowledge gap" by facilitating and providing support to developing nations. Specific goals include supporting the ongoing development of the African Region.

Code of Ethics for Health Information Professionals
The International Medical Informatics Association approved the endorsement of the IMIA Code of Ethics for Health Information Professionals at its General Assembly meeting on October 4, 2002 in Taipei, China. The "code" is the culmination of several years of a global collaborative effort led by IMIA’s working Group on Data Protection in Health Information, Chaired by Prof Ab Baker of the Netherlands.

Membership
IMIA membership consists of National, Institutional and Affiliate Members and Honorary Fellows.

National Members represent individual countries. A member is a society, a group of societies, or an appropriate body, which is representative of the medical, and health informatics activities within that country. Where no representative societies exist, IMIA accommodates involvement through "Corresponding" members within developing countries.

National Member Societies

 * Argentine Association of Medical Informatics
 * Health Informatics Society of Australia Ltd. (HISA)
 * Working Group Medical Informatics (AKMI) of the Austrian Society for Biomedical Engineering ÖGBMT) and of the Austrian Computer Society (OCG)
 * Belgian Medical Informatics Association
 * Society for Medical Informatics of Bosnia and Herzegovina
 * Brazilian Society of Health Informatics
 * COACH: Canada's Health Informatics Association
 * China Medical Informatics Association
 * Croatian Society for Medical Informatics
 * Cuban Society of Medical Informatics
 * Czech Society for Biomedical Engineering and Medical Informatics
 * The Danish Society for Medical Informatics
 * Finnish Social and Health Informatics Association (FinnSHIA)
 * French Medical Informatics Association (AIM)
 * German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology
 * Greek Health Informatics Association
 * Hong Kong Society of Medical Informatics
 * John von Neumann Computer Society(Hungary)
 * Iranian Medical Informatics Association
 * Healthcare Informatics Society of Ireland
 * The Israeli Association for Medical informatics
 * Italian Medical Informatics Society (AIIM)
 * Japan Association for Medical Informatics
 * Medical Pharmaceutical Information Association (MedPharmInfo)(Kazakstan)
 * Korea Society of Medical Informatics (KOSMI)
 * Malaysian Health Informatics Association (MHIA)
 * The Mali Society of Biomedical and Health Information (SOMBIS)
 * Health Informatics New Zealand
 * Norwegian Society for Medical Informatics
 * Philippine Medical Informatics Society, Inc.
 * Polish Society of Medical Informatics
 * Romanian Society of Medical Informatics
 * Association for Medical and Bio-Informatics, Singapore (AMBIS)
 * Slovak Society of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Informatics
 * Slovenian Medical Informatics Association (SIMIA)
 * South African Health Informatics Association
 * Spanish Society of Health Informatics
 * Swedish Federation for Medical Informatics
 * Swiss Society for Medical Informatics
 * VMBI, Society for Healthcare Informatics (Netherlands)
 * Turkish Medical Informatics Association (TURKMIA)
 * British Computer Society Health Informatics Forum
 * American Medical Informatics Association
 * Uruguayan Society of Health Informatics

Working and Special Interest Groups
The IMIA family includes a growing number of Working and Special Interest Groups, which consist of individuals who share common interests in a particular focal field. The groups hold Working Conferences on leading edge and timely health and medical informatics issues.

IMIA Working Groups and Special Interest Groups include:


 * Biomedical Pattern Recognition (WG 07)
 * Biomedical Statistics and Information Processing (WG 12)
 * Consumer Health Informatics (WG2)
 * Dental Informatics (WG 11)
 * Health and Medical Informatics Education (WG1)
 * Health Informatics for Development (WG 09)
 * Health Information Systems (WG 10)
 * Informatics in Genomic Medicine (IGM)
 * Intelligent Data Analysis and Data Mining (WG 03)
 * Medical Concept Representation (WG 06)
 * Mental Health Informatics (WG 08)
 * Open Source Health Informatics
 * Organizational and Social Issues (WG 13)
 * Primary Health Care Informatics (WG 05)
 * Security in Health Information Systems (WG 04)
 * SIG NI Nursing Informatics
 * Standards in Health Care Informatics (WG 16)
 * Technology Assessment & Quality Development in Health Informatics (WG 15)
 * Telematics in Health Care (WG 18)