HIE Library Archive 1998/9  

The 15th 'Medical Informatics Europe Congress' MIE'99 - Ljubljana Slovenia 21-26 August 1999

This was my first MIE conference ever.  I had always suspected MIE conferences to be like the Gathering of 'The Clan'.  'The Family' get together.  It is no longer a suspicion.  It is true.  I felt like a bacon sandwich at a Jewish wedding most of the time!

The Slovenes excelled in making everyone feel welcome.  Their friendliness, youthfulness and dynamism intrigued and warmed my heart.  I was intrigued (almost ashamed) because of my prior ignorance of Slovene culture and heritage.  I, like almost everybody else in the world, have lumped Slovenia together with the other republics in what we comfortably and conveniently called 'Yugoslavia'.  That was Tito's Yugoslavia.  That was then.  Little did I know how different all these nations are!

'The Family' gathered.  Like all families, there are politics, petty disputes, a great universe of different personalities, opportunists and time expired grandees.  Yet, one could feel the palpable warmth and familiarity that exist between the various members and branches of 'The Family'.  This was the cream of Europe's health informaticians getting together to build, yet once more, those elusive bridges of knowledge.

Did we get to build those bridges of knowledge?  I shall try to answer that question in a later editorial.  Right now, I wish this editorial to be more of a celebration of Slovenia and its good people.

Still, one cannot ignore the fact that here were gathered hundreds of the people who shape the direction and thrust of European health care information and communication technologies.  Few papers caught my imagination.  Many papers were certainly below the expected standard of Europe's best.  I shall write later about those papers and studies that I felt could make a difference.

The Congress left me with more questions than answers.  European health care informatics stand at the cross roads.  The challenges are many.  The solutions are abundant.  The implementation is woeful.  I shall return to these challenges in later editorials.  The aim would be to elicit responses and views from Europe's health informaticians as well as the world of health informatics at large.  I want to know if the health of Europeans is better under the reign of health informatics.  I invite you to take part in these forthcoming series of 'challenges' to the informatics community.

Highlights of my MIE'99:

• The stunning beauty of Ljubljana
• The warmth and youthfulness of Slovenia and the Slovene people
• The excellent organisation of the Congress
• The impressive use of technology to facilitate the success of the conference
• The banquet at Ljubljana Castle where I sampled Slovene delights from many corners of the country
• The words of the Mayor of Ljubljana: "it is so wonderful to see all this information technology ... yet, it is usually a kind word, a smile or a gesture that makes the patient better"
• My fear that my appearance in the group photograph of the British branch of 'The Family' may endanger my street credibility!
• David Markwell's paper "Validation of a European message standard for electronic health records"
• Illias Iakovidis's keynote speech "Trends in health telematics and the upcoming challenges for the research community"
• Linda Gask et al: "Psychiatry by videophone: a trial service in North West England" (one of the very few 'bad news' presentations that I have been hunting throughout the conference!)
• Branislav, who took me on a tour of the Slovene Julian Alps and managed to provide eight hours of non-stop commentary!

I shall return to walk the safe streets of Ljubljana once more.  To take its air, shoot the breeze by 'Three Bridges' and indulge myself in the richness of its culture and sophistication.  I shall return to thank the women and men of the Press Room, who touched me with their generosity and gifts.  I shall return to visit Maribor and its bouquet of knowledgeable health informaticians.  I shall return to the Julian Alps and the tiny coastline.  Most of all, I shall return to see how far has Slovenia gone in its embrace of health care informatics, and assess whether the health of ordinary Slovenes has improved as a result.

'Health Informatics Europe' hopes to publish some of the best papers presented at MIE'99 in the near future.

Ahmad Risk
30 August 1999