OBJECTIVE: To discuss international aspects as they relate to the convergence of disciplines in health informatics. METHOD: A group of international experts was invited at a symposium to present and discuss their perspectives on this topic. These have been collated in a single manuscript. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Significant challenges, as well as opportunities, appear when cumulating the intrinsic multidisciplinary nature of health informatics interventions with the diversity of contexts at the global level, in particular when considered in the perspective of a confluence, i.e., the mixing of different waters and their merging into a new, stronger entity. Health informatics experts reflect on key issues such as collaborative software development and distributed knowledge sourcing, social media and mobile technologies, the evolutions of the discipline from an historical perspective, as well as examples of challenges for implementing ubiquitous healthcare or for supporting disaster situations when infrastructures get disrupted.
OBJECTIVE: To discuss international aspects as they relate to the convergence of disciplines in health informatics. METHOD: A group of international experts was invited at a symposium to present and discuss their perspectives on this topic. These have been collated in a single manuscript. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Significant challenges, as well as opportunities, appear when cumulating the intrinsic multidisciplinary nature of health informatics interventions with the diversity of contexts at the global level, in particular when considered in the perspective of a confluence, i.e., the mixing of different waters and their merging into a new, stronger entity. Health informatics experts reflect on key issues such as collaborative software development and distributed knowledge sourcing, social media and mobile technologies, the evolutions of the discipline from an historical perspective, as well as examples of challenges for implementing ubiquitous healthcare or for supporting disaster situations when infrastructures get disrupted.
Authors: Petra Knaup; Elske Ammenwerth; Carl Dujat; Andrew Grant; Arie Hasman; Andreas Hein; Achim Hochlehnert; Casimir Kulikowski; John Mantas; Victor Maojo; Michael Marschollek; Lincoln Moura; Maik Plischke; Rainer Röhrig; Jürgen Stausberg; Katsuhiko Takabayashi; Frank Uckert; Alfred Winter; Klaus-Hendrik Wolf; Reinhold Haux Journal: J Med Syst Date: 2014-07 Impact factor: 4.460