On behalf of the Scientific Program Committee, I extend a warm welcome to the IMIA-NI members, students, practitioners, informatics researchers, industry partners, and others interested in health and nursing informatics who have come to attend the NI 2016, 13th International Congress on Nursing Informatics.

NI 2016 is a biennial conference of the IMIA-NI and the leading scientific meeting for health and nursing informatics research and practice. NI 2016 presents work not only from the discipline of nursing but also from many other disciplines and specialties including both basic and applied informatics.

The theme of NI 2016 is eHealth for all: Every level collaboration – From project to realization. The theme reflects the major challenges we face in healthcare today, that is, the need to collaborate at every level to achieve our goal of Health For All. NI 2016 offers a variety of topics on the conference theme.

The mission of the Scientific Program Committee is to solicit for, evaluate and schedule NI 2016 conference program to be consistent with the goal of the IMIA-NI. We received 445 submissions for papers, posters, short communications, panels, workshops, demonstrations, student competitions and tutorials from more than 40 countries. Each submission was reviewed by three reviewers selected from a panel of more than 963 experts. Reviewers' feedback was provided to the authors and every effort was made to ensure the best submissions given the constraints of the conference timetable. In the end, a total of 332 submissions were selected.

The result of the Scientific Program Committee's activity is reflected in the Conference Program and Proceedings. The proceedings contain OA full papers, indexed in MEDLINE, and also workshops, panels and posters summaries.

The Scientific Program Committee has prepared a wonderful program. We have six keynote speakers addressing the state-of-the-art for health and nursing informatics ranging from data, to healthcare delivery to the policy level. There are 24 paper sessions, 20 poster sessions, 23 panel discussions, 14 workshops, 1 demonstration, 8 tutorials and 6 student competitions to attend. The exhibit hall will provide attendees with the opportunity to learn about the latest products and services in health and nursing information and information technology. The NI 2016 is adding two new features, a Wearable Fashion Show and an Interoperability Showcase. The Wearable Fashion Show will present how technology and fashion can be merged for healthcare. The Interoperability Showcase will present how EHR Applications, Devices and Apps communicate patient data electronically using HL7 standards and IHE profiles. This showcase is jointly organized by the HL7 Nurses Work Group with HL7 PCWG EHRWG, CICWG and Associations such as IMIA-NI, ICN, HIMSS and IHE. I hope that all participants have the opportunity to learn from and network with others through tutorials, keynotes, paper sessions, poster sessions, panel discussions, and workshops and find new and exciting ideas to inspire them.

I am very grateful to the contributors for their contributions and the reviewers for providing expert reviews. I am especially grateful to Patrick Weber, Chair of the NI 2016 Local Organizing Committee, and Maria Muller-Staub and Margie Kennedy, Co-chairs of the Scientific Program Committee, for their leadership and strong support.

We are in Geneva, Switzerland and I hope you find some time before or after the conference to enjoy this beautiful city and country.

Hyeoun-Ae Park, PhD, RN, FAAN Chair, Scientific Program Committee, Professor in College of Nursing and Systems Biomedical Informatics Research Center, Seoul National University