Danish Society for Medical Informatics

The interest in medical informatics - or more appropriate, health care informatics - is increasing in the Danish community. The awareness among health care professionals is increasing, the topic is clearly on the political agenda, and the marketplace is expanding.

It is interesting to note, that

• MIE conference was organised in Copenhagen by DSMI in 1996
• The Government has published its IT strategy - where health care has a very high priority
• the first phase of the national health care network programme (MedCom) has been successfully completed. A second phase is initiated and, as phase one, it is funded by the authorities, industry and health care professionals organisations
• the transmission of EDI-messages in health care has increased by 200% the last two years
• the Ministry of Health has initiated a project for supporting the development of Danish electronic patient records
• a post graduate education in health care informatics has been established at Aalborg University. The first students have graduated.
• the National Panel for Standardisation of Medical Informatics has published a popular booklet on Danish and European standardisation work
• the number of members in The Danish Society for Medical Informatics are increasing

The Danish Society for Medical Informatics - Dansk Selskab for Medicinsk Informatik (DSMI) was established in 1966. It is an independent society with an associated status to the Danish Medical Societies. The aim of the society is to compile and disseminate theoretical and practical knowledge in medical informatics, and to stimulate research and the use of medical information systems. The 350 members are physicians, nurses and others who work with theoretical or practical aspects of medical information technologies

DSMI organises meetings, conferences and courses to pursue the goals of the society.

One of the largest efforts for the Society was the organisation of MIE'96 in Copenhagen. More that 1000 participants participated in the high quality scientific programme and the large exhibition.

Other meetings have been successfully organised on electronic patient records, classification and semantics, clinical databases, resource management, the information highway etc. In 1997 there will be organised conferences and meetings on the new national strategy for electronic patient records, the national classification system, standardisation etc. Meetings are also organised in cooperation with the Danish Society for Quality Assurance and the Danish Biomedical Association. DSMI has set up special interest groups for electronic patient records and informatics in quality assurance.

The Society is represented in various groups, i.e. the Ministry of Health's advisory group and the Danish Standardisation Committee. The Society publishes a newsletter five times a year, with abstracts of the meetings, papers, book reviews, announcements of international conferences and other relevant information.

DSMI has for the first time supported students at the health informatics education at Aalborg university. Three students received grants for more than 2500 ECU.