MedInfo 2013 continues a 39-year tradition of bringing 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 rapidly advancing, multidisciplinary field.

Recent natural disasters, emerging epidemics, changing demographics, volatile economics, and dwindling resources have called for collective and collaborative efforts to address the new and evolving challenges in health care and biomedicine. Echoing the conference theme, integrative innovations that converge multidisciplinary technologies, rigorous scientific investigations that explicate the nature of complex phenomena, and human-centered designs that connect people are crucial for realizing the immense potential of information and communication technologies to improve health care processes and patient outcomes.

MedInfo 2013 features a pre-congress offering of an extensive tutorial program by leading experts and a student paper competition that draws the best young talent from all over the world. The main program includes keynote talks, papers, posters, panels, workshops, and scientific demonstrations that span a broad range of topics from emerging methodologies that contribute to the conceptual and scientific foundations of biomedical and health informatics, to successful implementations of innovative application, integration, and evaluation of eHealth systems and solutions. The United Nations/World Health Organization strategies and efforts, as well as other initiatives to improve health outcomes in populations with varying resources in the world are featured in the program.

The conference program includes 186 paper presentations, 310 poster abstract presentations, 29 panels, 18 workshops and 8 scientific demonstrations. There are also two presentation categories new to the MedInfo program this year:

The “Care for the World” mini-symposia, which include four sessions, each featuring a set of global, regional, and national eHealth initiatives and programs that highlights the visions, challenges, and opportunities for government and industry collaboration, and innovations for improving health care and the quality of life for every world citizen. Follow-on discussions and activities are encouraged after the symposia.

The vision papers include eight presentations that highlight well-thought and well-argued concepts and proposals on special ideas and future directions in health and biomedicine. These papers serve to inspire and stimulate discussions on the relevant topics for further exploration and development.

The contributions and presentations included in the program are carefully selected through a rigorous review process from a large number of submissions from all over the world. The Scientific Program Committee is grateful to all the reviewers who have contributed to the process, and thanks all the people involved in putting the program together.

The conference participants come to Copenhagen from all continents and 60 different countries. We hope that you will enjoy the program!

Sincerely,

Dominik Aronsky, MD, PhD, FACMI and Tze-Yun Leong, PhD, FACMI

Co-Chairs, MedInfo 2013 Scientific Program Committee