“Throughout the world, health care professionals often lack knowledge of the possibilities and limitations of systematically processing data, information and knowledge and of the resulting impact on quality decision-making. They are often asked to use information technologies of which they have limited appreciation, in order to enhance their practices through better use of information resources. However, for systematically processing data, information and knowledge in medicine and in health care, health care professionals who are well-trained in medical informatics or health informatics are needed. It will only be through improved education of health care professionals and through an increase in the number of well-trained workers in health and medical informatics that this lack of knowledge and associated skills can begin to be reversed.

Health and medical informatics education is of particular importance at the beginning of the 21st century for the following reasons …:

1 progress in information processing and information and communication technology is changing our societies;

2 the amount of health and medical knowledge is increasing at such a phenomenal rate that we cannot hope to keep up with it, or store, organise and retrieve existing and new knowledge in a timely fashion without using a new information processing methodology and information technologies;

3 there are significant economic benefits to be obtained from the use of information and communication technology to support medicine and health care;

4 similarly the quality of health care is enhanced by the systematic application of information processing and information and communication technology;

5 it is expected, that these developments will continue, probably at least at the same pace as can be observed today;

6 health care professionals who are well-educated in health or medical informatics are needed to systematically process information in medicine and in health care, and for the appropriate and responsible application of information and communication technology;

7 through an increase in scope and the provision of high quality education in the field of health and medical informatics, well-educated health care professionals world-wide are expected to raise the quality and efficiency of health care.”

These were the first paragraphs of the recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on health and medical informatics education

Recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on Education in Health and Medical Informatics. Methods Inf Med 2000; 39: 267-77. See also http://www.imia.org.

IMIA and in particular its working group on health and medical informatics education (www.IMIA.org) is the leading international society stimulating such educational activities in various ways. As part of these activities, the past and the current chairperson of IMIA's working group on health and medical informatics education, Professor Evelyn Hovenga, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, Australia, and Professor John Mantas, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, have now edited this book on global health informatics education. Their know-how and experience as well as that of the numerous authors of this book will especially be helpful for educators in the field of health/medical informatics. With the knowledge contained in this book, let us try to further improve education and with it, finally, the quality and efficiency of care.

Prof. Dr. Reinhold Haux, Rector of UMIT - the University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Innsbruck, Austria, IMIA Vice-President for Services