By Andre Kushniruk, PhD
As the outgoing Digital Health Canada Representative to IMIA (the International Medical Informatics Association), I would like to share some details regarding this volunteer position and outline the role and its relevance. Hopefully this will provide useful information to Digital Health Canada members who may consider applying for this position.
IMIA is the world body devoted to health informatics and digital health. It provides leadership and expertise to the interdisciplinary health informatics community around the world. IMIA aims to enable the transformation of healthcare for improving healthcare using information technology, and as such it plays a key role in promoting and furthering the application of digital technologies in healthcare. IMIA brings together leading scientists, researchers, vendors, developers, and consultants in a global context. In addition, IMIA has developed a strong focus in developing recommendations for developing and advancing academic health informatics programs. In addition, every two years, IMIA holds the preeminent international health informatics conference—World Congress on Medical and Health Informatics: MedInfo—where researchers and practitioners from around the world present their latest work in digital health.
The Digital Health Canada Representative to IMIA represents Canada on the world stage, connecting Digital Health Canada with representatives from corresponding national organizations, focusing on advances in digital health from other countries. IMIA also holds a General Assembly meeting once yearly, where the Digital Health Canada representative has voting rights on behalf of Digital Health Canada. Also, every two years, the Digital Health Canada representative holds a two-year term on the IMIA Board as the Vice President North America.
The position of Digital Health Canada representative to IMIA is unique in that it allows for great exposure to leading researchers, developers, and practitioners in digital health from around the globe. As Canadians, we can learn much about and from advances in digital health happening in other countries. We can also inform our global colleagues about developments and advances happening in Canada.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my role as Digital Health Canada representative to IMIA and highly recommend the position to those interested with interfacing with colleagues from around the world.
Andre Kushniruk, PhD
Outgoing Digital Health Representative to IMIA