MedInfo2013: join the International Biomedical and Health Informatics Community in Copenhagen.

Methods Inf Med 5/2012 The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), together with its member society, the Danish Society of Medical Informatics (DSMI), will host the 14th World Congress on Medical and Health Informatics (MedInfo2013) in Copenhagen, Denmark, on August 20 –23, 2013. IMIA is the leader for the international biomedical and health informatics communities. In line with its main goals of bridging biomedical and health informatics research and practice, and promoting cross-fertilization of health informatics information and knowledge across professional and geographical boundaries, the triennial (and soon to be biannual starting in 2015) MedInfo is the premier conference that brings together world leaders, policy makers, researchers, practitioners, educators, and students to exchange ideas and contribute to the latest developments, innovations, and global trends in this fascinating, rapidly advancing, and multidisciplinary field. The theme of MedInfo2013 centers on 4C-ing the eHealth future: “Conducting medical informatics by Converging technologies, Conveying sciences, and Connecting people” and emphasizes the interdisciplinary, collaborative, and translational science and practice that characterizes the informatics domain. The Congress will also focus on how human-centered, integrative approaches can contribute to usable, adaptive, and cost-effective eHealth solutions for the world. Recent natural disasters, emerging epidemics, changing demographics, volatile economics, and dwindling resources have called for collective, collaborative and trans-disciplinary efforts to address the new and evolving challenges in health care and biomedicine. Human-centered designs that connect people, and integrative innovations that converge multidisciplinary technologies are crucial for realizing the tremendous, but often dormant potential of information and communication technologies to improve health care processes and patient outcomes. Problem solving and decision making in the complex and uncertain care environments require scientific solutions that are adaptive and cost-effective. MedInfo2013 will highlight both emerging methodologies that contribute to the conceptual and scientific foundations of biomedical and health informatics, and successful implementations of innovative application, integration, and evaluation of eHealth systems and solutions. The congress is organized around four major tracks relevant to the domains of translational bioinformatics, clinical informatics, clinical research informatics, nursing informatics, consumer health informatics, and public health informatics: 1) representing and understanding biomedical knowledge; 2) enhancing care, patient safety and outcome; 3) managing care information and workflow; and 4) enabling cost-effective health care.