http://healthinformatics.cqu.edu.au/newsNews on the the Health Informatics Research Group, Central Queensland University enDr. Sebastian Garde s.garde@cqu.edu.auDr. Sebastian Garde s.garde@cqu.edu.auThu, 12 Apr 2007 05:45:47 GMTWed, 29 Aug 2007 02:10:38 GMThttp://healthinformatics.cqu.edu.au/pics/HealthInformatics.pnghttp://healthinformatics.cqu.edu.au/newshttp://www.ejhi.netThe electronic Journal of Health Informatics has just published its latest issue at http://www.ejhi.net. This issue of the journal showcases five of the top ranked papers from the 2006 Australian Health Informatics Conference. The range of areas covered in this edition reflects the broad field of health informatics. The issue is a special issue on HIC 2006, the Australian Health Informatics Conference that took place in Sydney last year. This year this conference was incorporated in the international Medinfo conference, which took place in Brisbane last week. The special issue as been guest-edited by Joanne Callen and Johanna Westbrook. The authors of the Top 10 papers from the conference were asked to submit extended versions of their research to this journal and 5 papers were accepted after full peer-review. In addition, this issue also features two unsolicited fully peer-reviewed papers. We invite you to access the Table of Contents and the papers at http://ejhi.net/ojs/index.php/ejhi/issue/view/4 The electronic Journal of Health Informatics is an international journal committed to scholarly excellence and dedicated to the advancement of Health Informatics and information technology in healthcare. It is a journal for all health professions and informaticians of all levels. eJHI is a truly open access journal - it provides open access both for authors (i.e. no publication fee or page charges) and for readers (i.e. free access to all papers). Dr. Sebastian Gardehttp://healthinformatics.cqu.edu.au/pics/eJHIlogo.jpg{8af85427-74ab-5682-99a2-9f68a1c2d37}Wed, 29 Aug 2007 02:10:38 GMThttp://content.cqu.edu.au/UniNews/viewStory.do?story=4315Central Queensland University is helping to champion the latest worldwide update of the openEHR Foundation's comprehensive health computing platform. The openEHR Foundation's health computing platform provides the basis for future-proof, sharable electronic health records (EHRs). CQU has most recently led the spread of this platform in Chile where a team led by Professor Evelyn Hovenga has signed agreements with major stakeholders of the Chilean Health system such as hospitals, universities and the health ministry. The Australian university recently (May 24) accepted a delegation from Chile's DoucUC (Professional educational institute) and the Chilean Ambassador, at its Sydney International Campus, in order to launch a new relationship to further this type of work. openEHR architecture, using innovative 'Archetype' technology, allows information of a highly varied (and variable) nature to be collated in one or more health record repositories without compromising interoperability. Clinical documentation standards can evolve. The openEHR is the work of a core team from Ocean Informatics, Australia, and University College London (UCL), England, with additional support from another 20 or so dedicated information and health professionals, as well as the openEHR community of around 1000 members from 70 countries. It builds on work done in numerous projects funded by the European Commission and the Australian government. Ocean Informatics bases all of its core tools and technologies on openEHR and has recently established a presence in London due to growing European interest. In the United Kingdom, the National Health Service is using the openEHR methodology and Ocean's toolset to build archetypes and templates for national use. A similar approach is under formal assessment in Scotland and Denmark. openEHR is truly global in application because it has inbuilt multi-lingual support. The Ocean tools are currently available in English, Spanish, Turkish, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and German and are being used or assessed in many countries around the world. Applications built to use this non-proprietary specification enable the movement of all or part of a person's health information from professional to professional as required. The specification also caters for patients carrying their own personal health records if they have reason to be concerned about privacy. openEHR provides the key semantics of the new European EHR Extract standard 2, including its archetype language, ADL, which will also soon become an ISO standard. In Australia, the openEHR architecture was initially tested in the HealthConnect Trials in Queensland with a further pilot implementation beginning in rural Victoria. An openEHR health record ensures that information collected at one site may be shared and processed at any other point of care. This offers the prospect of true interoperability in the health care environment - a long-term goal of Health Departments and Governments globally and one that has already attracted huge amounts of funding in many parts of the world.http://content.cqu.edu.au/UniNews/getDisplayImage.do?id=4323{96134de4-f4a7-766d-c936-4e952b7c510e}Wed, 06 Jun 2007 20:23:43 GMThttp://www.healthinformatics.cqu.edu.au/news/ejhi.htmA major shift is underway in healthcare around the world, due at least in part to the attention that population ageing and its anticipated impacts is demanding. The electronic Journal of Health Informatics (eJHI) has recognised the emergence of a growing field within Health Informatics that will be increasingly important in environments of population ageing, increasing pressures on hospital services, shortages of carers and increasing consumer demand balanced by an increasing availability of assistive technologies to support care delivery, particularly in home settings. Current developments and a vision for the future are presented in this special issue dedicated to Aged Care Informatics. eJHI is an international journal committed to scholarly excellence and dedicated to the advancement of Health Informatics and information technology in healthcare. eJHI is a truly open access journal - it provides open access both for authors (i.e. no publication fee or page charges) and for readers (i.e. free access to all papers). eJHI is the official journal of HISA - Health Informatics Society of Australia (http://www.hisa.org.au), ACHI - Australian College of Health Informatics (http://www.achi.org.au). The journal is published by the Central Queensland University's Health Informatics Research Group. Prof. Evelyn Hovenga is Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Dr. Sebastian Garde is Managing Editor. This special issue of eJHI is guest-edited by : - Dr Jeffrey Soar, Associate Professor, Information Systems, Director, Collaboration for Ageing and Aged Care Informatics Research (CAAIR), University of Southern Queensland, Australia - Dr Moya Conrick, RN, RM, DipAppSc, BN, MClEd, PhD Griffith University, Australia - Mark Barnett, KM Group, Australia Dr. Sebastian Gardehttp://healthinformatics.cqu.edu.au/pics/eJHIlogo.jpg{8af85427-74ab-5682-99a2-9f68a1c2d37}Mon, 30 Apr 2007 03:32:25 GMThttp://uninews.cqu.edu.au/viewStory.do?story=4180CQU's Health Informatics Research Group (HIRG) has been spreading its primary message that all health information systems should be semantically interoperable. The group believes this can best be achieved via the openEHR 2-level software engineering approach. Following a recent visit to Chile in March/April, and the signing of agreements, the CQU Group now has a range of medical and nursing experts from that country keen to collaborate on an archetype development program and a number of organisations keen to develop and implement this openEHR system architecture. HIRG Director Professor Evelyn Hovenga will meet representatives from Chile's Ministry of Health and 2 Chilean universities in Brisbane after she chairs the 12th International Medical (Health) Informatics Congress (Medinfo2007) from August 20-24. Details are at: http://www.medinfo2007.org/ . CQU signed an agreement with Chile's Ministry of Health in Chile in November 2006. The main outcome is for CQU's expertise to contribute to the Chilean's Health system development in order to improve the quality of life of their population. The Health Informatics Research Group (http://healthinformatics.cqu.edu.au/ ) has carriage of this agreement. Professor Hovenga is keen to hear from CQU staff keen to work with HIRG on a number of emerging research, consulting and teaching projects relating to the Chilean agreement, with detailed work plans needed by early June, 2007. "We are concentrating on the establishment of a national health information and health informatics standards infrastructure with a strong focus on public health, primary health care improvements, creating administrative efficiencies, improving access to health care and building health informatics capacity for their health workforce enabling semantic information system interoperability that is needed for the successful introduction of clinical pathways, electronic health records, improved resource management via casemix funding (uses a version of activity based costing), telemedicine (health) amongst other initiatives," Professor Hovenga said. "Our recent visit was funded not only by the Chilean Ministry of Health but also by other major universities who wish to work closely with us..... Each of these universities own and manage a number of hospitals and other clinical facilities throughout Chile and all of these health networks are in the process of upgrading existing information systems or introducing new systems. "In addition to the formal signing ceremonies, we provided numerous presentations, master classes, workshops, focus group discussions with senior admin staff, Professors, Deans, medical specialists, resident doctors, nurses, other health workers, IT staff and software developers. "We have been asked to develop a number of consultancy/evaluation proposals, implement a comprehensive Health Informatics education strategy, including student work experience placements, and continuing education for all primary health medical practitioners via distance education, accept 5 new PhD students, publish collaborative papers, publish an updated Health Informatics textbook and arrange a national HI congress for 2008. By the way we have also been asked to provide HI education with a Malaysian University." http://uninews.cqu.edu.au/getDisplayImage.do?id=4069{456eb33-19f6-6589-5ab4-706bd5155fc8}Thu, 26 Apr 2007 06:07:53 GMThttp://www.healthinformatics.cqu.edu.au/staff.htmThe research group appoints two new Adjunct Professors, Dr Michael Legg and Dr William Goossen. Dr Michael Legg is President of the Health Informatics Society of Australia and Principal of Michael Legg and Associates. Dr William Goossen is the Director of Results 4 Care in The Netherlands. Both are leaders in the field of Health Informatics. Dr. Sebastian Gardehttp://www.healthinformatics.cqu.edu.au/pics/staff/GoossenLegg.jpg{a77e421c-2be2-f718-f99f-a52d54543995}Fri, 20 Apr 2007 12:18:46 GMThttp://www.uninews.cqu.edu.au/viewStory.do?story=4111Professor Evelyn Hovenga, from CQU's Health Informatics Research Group, has been in Chile during March for the signing of agreements with 3 universities and associated hospitals. She has been accompanied by Dr Carol Hullin and Dr Sebastian Garde.Dr. Sebastian Garde s.garde@cqu.edu.auhttp://www.uninews.cqu.edu.au/getDisplayImage.do?id=3935{424fc088-33cf-e21-acae-730738232d86}Thu, 12 Apr 2007 06:16:27 GMThttp://healthinformatics.cqu.edu.au/downloads/HovengaACHSE2006.pdfProf. Hovenga presents an overview of Establishing a Sustainable Health System through e-Health, one of the major challenges in Australia and worldwide. Dr. Sebastian Garde s.garde@cqu.edu.auhttp://healthinformatics.cqu.edu.au/pics/HealthInformatics.jpg{2720f71e-15d5-e5e3-109e-b24293d9a0c7}Thu, 18 Jan 2007 05:19:55 GMThttp://healthinformatics.cqu.edu.au/projects/chile/index.htmCentral Queensland University will work with the 'Digital Agenda' for the roll-out of e-Health initiatives throughout the South American nation of Chile. CQU has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chilean Ministry of Health to build the capacity of the health informatics workforce in areas including electronic health records, telemedicine, web-based medical technologies and educational programs. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed between CQU Vice-Chancellor Professor John Rickard and Chilean authorities, including Minister of International Affairs Alejandro Foxley and the Chilean Ambassador in Australia Jose Luis Balmaceda. These authorities are representing the Health Minister of Chile Dr Maria Soledad Barria and the 'Digital Agenda' department led by Rodrigo Caravantes. Professor Evelyn Hovenga, from CQU's Health Informatics Research Group, said the Australians would work with the Chilean Government to guide development of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) throughout Chile as part of wider health reform. "We'll be providing consultancy, strategic support, technical visits, training for government personnel and education programs for healthcare professionals," she said. CQU has been actively involved with the Chilean health system for the past 2 years, and this agreement will formalise these links in a climate where Chile has committed significant resources to e-Health implementation as part of a national 'Digital Agenda'. Dr. Sebastian Garde s.garde@cqu.edu.auhttp://healthinformatics.cqu.edu.au/pics/Chile/125px-Flag_of_Chile.svg.png{2fcb566-fbf4-342f-e902-7ab33996c494}Sun, 12 Nov 2006 05:14:28 GMThttp://content.cqu.edu.au/UniNews/viewStory.do?story=3670CQU's Dr Sebastian Garde has been awarded with the Innovation Award of the Friedrich-Wingert Foundation and also the Certificate of 'Medical Informatics'. The awards were presented at the 51st Annual Conference of the German Society of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology in Germany. Melbourne-based Dr Garde was presented with the Award of the Friedrich-Wingert Foundation for his outstanding linguistic and semantic approaches for optimizing health care and for his contributions to "managing openEHR archetypes for Semantically interoperable Electronic Health Records". openEHR is an international not-for-profit Foundation, working towards making the interoperable, life-long electronic health record a reality and thus improving health care in the information society. The Award of the Certificate of 'Medical Informatics' was presented to Dr Garde to honour his qualification as a leader in the field of Medical Informatics. Dr Sebastian Garde has been a Postdoctoral Research Fellow for Health Informatics at CQU since 2004. He is based at the offices of CQU's research partner, Austin Centre for Applied Clinical Informatics. He has a strong interest in electronic health records and (in cooperation with Ocean Informatics) has developed the openEHR Archetype Finder (http://www.dualitysystems.com.au/archetypefinder). During 2005, Dr Garde was the co-convenor of a series of workshops on archetype development for clinicians in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. He has also contributed to the development of a prototype User Interface Generator for the openEHR-initiative based on archetypes. Dr Garde is also Managing Editor of the recently founded electronic Journal of Health Informatics - eJHI (http://ejhi.net), hosted by CQU. CQU’s Dr Carola Hullin, who also attended the event, said, “The closing ceremony was great. The presentation went well and we got lots of interest. More than 800 delegates attended". Dr. Sebastian Garde s.garde@cqu.edu.auhttp://content.cqu.edu.au/UniNews/getDisplayImage.do?id=3440{417759c5-8631-ad38-e61f-7335aae74c6d}Tue, 26 Sep 2006 06:14:30 GMThttp://content.cqu.edu.au/UniNews/viewStory.do?story=3125Dr Evelyn Hovenga, CQU Professor for Health Informatics, and Dr Sebastian Garde, CQU researcher in the Health Informatics Research Group, have founded the fully refereed electronic Journal of Health Informatics (eJHI). The electronic Journal of Health Informatics (http://ejhi.net) is an international journal committed to scholarly excellence and dedicated to the advancement of Health Informatics and information technology in healthcare.Dr. Sebastian Garde s.garde@cqu.edu.auhttp://healthinformatics.cqu.edu.au/pics/eJHIlogo.jpg{4350535-349f-ee80-d001-6d2b738e7506}Wed, 29 Mar 2006 06:14:32 GMThttp://medinfo2007.orgHISA Australia, hosts the Medinfo 2007 Congress - August 20 - 24, 2007 Brisbane. Evelyn Hovenga is Organising Committee Chairperson.Dr. Sebastian Garde s.garde@cqu.edu.auhttp://healthinformatics.cqu.edu.au/pics/medinfo.gif{8506eb8b-eb09-e487-c90e-df80b6e044d8}Thu, 12 Jan 2006 05:14:34 GMT