The Efmi STC2012 was jointly organized by the European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI) and the Russian Association for Medical Informatics (AMI). The overarching aim of EFMI Special Topic Conferences is to provide a forum for discussing achievements and actual experiences on specific topics in medical informatics. Being based on innovative methods and approaches, a Special Topic Conference (STC) enhances the communication among professional communities in the health informatics domain. STCs are organized in close collaboration with EFMI Working Groups.

Carrying on the series of EFMI Special Topic Conferences started in 2001 in Bucharest, Romania, EFMI STC 2012 is one of the most important European events in the common sphere of medicine and informatics in the year. Its major goal is to increase interaction and collaboration between the stakeholder groups from both health and ICT across, but not limited to, Europe. The 2012 event has been actively supported by the EFMI Working Groups “Assessment of Health Information Systems (EVAL)”, “Health Informatics for Interregional Communication (HIIC)”, “Health Information Management (HIME)”, and “Libre/Free and Open Source Software in Health Informatics (LI-FOSS)”.

The theme of STC 2012 is the implementation experience of large scale eHealth projects. Those large scale projects can be described by size, effects, complexity, duration etc. eHealth projects contribute to the success and sustainability of tomorrow's health care systems. Large scale projects are mostly accompanied by small and dedicated initiatives and solutions. STC 2012 will try to bring experience, innovation, new concepts and actual research and development into a constructive discussion resulting in a partnership for modernization. Success stories but also failures which provide a basis for further improvement of health information systems' applications shall be presented.

For successfully mastering the challenges in health supported by ICT, qualification and training of professionals and patients are utmost important prerequisites. So, educational programs and activities including didactic and technical innovations as well as eLearning play a big role in this year's event.

This publication reflects the objective of the conference to highlight large scale projects supporting the use of information and communication technology (eHealth) at national, regional, and also at international level. It results in requirements for national and regional solutions for medical informatics and health information management.

Russia joined the European Federation for Medical Informatics EFMI in 2006. Therefore, initiating or fostering partnerships for modernization with this important country is another goal of this STC. Efficient and effective delivery of health care requires accurate and relevant methodologies, e.g. patient-centered clinical data, its communication and application in medical decision support. This publication enables some insight in the use of information and communication technology in different countries. It is designed to have a high relevance in practice and further research.

The EFMI STC 2012 has been completed through seminars on “Open Source for Health Care” and “Good Evaluation Practice in Health Care using GEP-HI”.

The editors would like to thank all the authors for their excellent work as well as the reviewers for lending their expertise to the conference, thereby contributing to the final achievements. Furthermore, they are indebted to HL7 International and HL7 Germany for sponsoring the publication of the proceedings. Final thanks are dedicated to Thomas Schabetsberger, who collaboratively responded to all requests related to the Online-Submission System.

Bernd Blobel, Rolf Engelbrecht and Michael A. Shifrin

(Editors)