The Korean Society of Medical Informatics (KOSMI) is pleased to again host a major event in health informatics, the 9th International Congress on Nursing Informatics, NI2006. This major event, which is held in collaboration with KOSMI-NI, our Nursing Informatics Specialist Group, and with IMIA-NI, the Special Interest Group in Nursing Informatics of the International Medical Informatics Association, builds on our experience in the successful MEDINFO conference held in Seoul in 1998. The host country, Korea, is well known for having the highest level of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) accessibility in the world. Advances in ICT in Korea have lead Korean health care sectors to fully utilize the benefit of ICT for health care.

NI2006 is the premier International congress for nurses and informatics experts working with informatics applications in nursing care, administration, research and education, bringing together the worlds of nursing informatics community. The theme of the congress, “Consumer-Centered Computer-Supported Care for Healthy People” emphasizes the central role of the consumer and the function of information technology in health care. This theme reflects the major challenge in our time, which is developing and using information technology for the improvement of consumer oriented health care.

The Scientific Programme Committee (SPC) was faced with a difficult task in selecting the best submissions. We received over 365 submissions for papers, posters, demonstrations, workshops, panels, and tutorials. Each submission was reviewed by at least two reviewers selected from a panel of more than 80 experts. Scientific reviewer feedback was provided to the authors of each submission, and every effort was made to accommodate the best submissions given the constraints of the conference timetable. This has meant that in some cases, the type of presentation was modified to accommodate to the limited time slots available for each presentation type.

The result of the SPC activity is reflected in the Proceedings and Conference Programme. The printed version of the Proceedings has page limitations, therefore only paper, poster and demonstration presentations are included. The full contents, including all accepted workshops, panels and tutorials, are included in the CD version of the Congress Proceedings. The Congress Proceedings will be indexed, including in MEDLINE, which will include all contents for the printed Proceedings.

The proceedings are an integrated part of NI2006. We would like to thank all those who have made the printed volume and the CD possible, the authors, the Scientific Programme Committee, the Organizing Committee, the reviewers, and the team in Seoul, Mariah Min, Hyunkyoung Ryu, Hyeyoung Kim, Shinyoung Kim and many more.

Hyeoun-Ae Park, Peter Murray, Connie Delaney