The Sociedade Brasileira de Informática em Saúde (Brazilian Society of Health Informatics), abbreviated as SBIS, is a professional society created in November 1986 in Campinas, during the First Brazilian Congress on Health Informatics. It has the mission of promoting the development and the interchange of ideas and results in the fields devoted to the information technologies applied to the health sciences ( Medical informatics, Telemedicine,

Bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combi ...

, etc.).

Mission and areas of interest

SBIS is a

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

membership organization of individuals and institutions interested in developing and using information technologies to improve health care in Brazil. To accomplish its goal, SBIS may develop the following activities: * Stimulate educational activities related to

health informatics Health informatics is the field of science and engineering that aims at developing methods and technologies for the acquisition, processing, and study of patient data, which can come from different sources and modalities, such as electronic hea ...

; * Stimulate scientific research and technical development in Health Informatics; * Organize

conferences A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main pu ...

symposium In ancient Greece, the symposium ( grc-gre, συμπόσιον ''symposion'' or ''symposio'', from συμπίνειν ''sympinein'', "to drink together") was a part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was acc ...

s, courses, seminars, and other activities that lead to experience and knowledge exchange; * Cooperate with sister societies; * Contribute to the definition of

healthcare Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

policies; * Promote Health Informatics as a means to reduce costs and improve the quality of healthcare services. Some of SBIS areas of interest are: * Health information systems * Health information management * Electronic patient record * Telemedicine and

telehealth Telehealth is the distribution of health-related services and information via electronic information and telecommunication technologies. It allows long-distance patient and clinician contact, care, advice, reminders, education, intervention, mon ...

Medical decision support systems A clinical decision support system (CDSS) is a health information technology, provides clinicians, staff, patients, or other individuals with knowledge and person-specific information, to help health and health care. CDSS encompasses a variety of ...

Biological signal processing Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary in ...

Medical image processing Medical imaging is the technique and process of imaging the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention, as well as visual representation of the function of some organs or tissues (physiology). Medical imaging seeks to rev ...

Internet applications in health The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...

Health information standards Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

Health informatics education Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organizat ...

Distance education in health Distance is a numerical or occasionally qualitative measurement of how far apart objects or points are. In physics or everyday usage, distance may refer to a physical length or an estimation based on other criteria (e.g. "two counties over"). ...

Currently it has around 780 associates, thus being the third largest in the Americas, after the American Medical Informatics Association and the

Canada's Health Informatics Association Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by total ...

, and the largest in Latin America, according to the International Medical Informatics Association. The Society is affiliated to the International Medical Informatics Association since 1988.

Governance

The current Executive Board (2008–2010) is led by Dr. Cláudio Giulliano Alves da Costa (President). Former presidents were: Roberto J. Rodrigues,

Renato M.E. Sabbatini Renato Marcos Endrizzi Sabbatini (born 20 February 1947, Campinas) is a retired professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering and at the State University of Campinas Institute of Biology. He received a B.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences from ...

, Mariza Machado Klück,

Beatriz de Faria Leão Beatriz (, ) is a Spanish, Galician and Portuguese female first name. It corresponds to the Latin name Beatrix and the English and Italian name Beatrice. The name in Latin means 'brings joy' and in other languages also means 'she who brings oth ...

, Daniel Sigulem,

Umberto Tachinardi Umberto Tachinardi, MD, MSc, Fellow ACMI, is a Brazilian-born chief information officer and biomedical informaticist. Trained by the founders (Candido Pinto de Melo, Lincoln de Assis Moura Jr and Sergio Shiguemi Furuie) of the prestigious Medical ...

, Lincoln de Assis Moura Jr. and

Heimar de Fátima Marin Heimar de Fátima Marin is a nurse and a full professor at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP). Career In 2004 she was elected international member at the American College of Medical Informatics. Heimar Marin was also the president ...

. Short histories of Health Informatics in Brazil have been published elsewhere by former presidents of the Society.

Conferences and Meetings

SBIS organizes since 1986 a biannual national conference, the

Brazilian Congress of Health Informatics The Sociedade Brasileira de Informática em Saúde (Brazilian Society of Health Informatics), abbreviated as SBIS, is a professional society created in November 1986 in Campinas, during the First Brazilian Congress on Health Informatics. It has th ...

and a biannual specialized conference on

Electronic Health Record An electronic health record (EHR) is the systematized collection of patient and population electronically stored health information in a digital format. These records can be shared across different health care settings. Records are shared throu ...

s (PEP); besides other, smaller and less periodical meetings. The Brazilian Congress on Health Informatics takes place in different cities every two years and has as its main subjects the applications of information technology and telematics to medicine, nursing,

dentistry Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions o ...

and allied

health care Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

sciences, from the point of view of the expert scientific and technical worker in these areas. The first conference was organized in November 1986, in the city of Campinas by Dr.

. The vice-president was Dr. Hugo Sabatino, and the editor-in-chief of the Conference's proceedings was Dr.

Renato G.G. Terzi Renatus is a first name of Latin origin which means "born again" (natus = born). In Italian, Portuguese and Spanish it exists in masculine and feminine forms: Renato and Renata. In French they have been translated to René and Renée. Renata i ...

, all with the

Medical School A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, M ...

at the same university. During this conference, the Brazilian Society of Health Informatics was launched, as well as the ''Brazilian Journal of Health Informatics''. The conference was then repeated in 1988 ( São Paulo), 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996 ( Campos do Jordão), 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004 ( Natal), 2006 (

Florianópolis Florianópolis () is the capital and second largest city of the state of Santa Catarina, in the South region of Brazil. The city encompasses Santa Catarina Island and surrounding small islands, as well as part of the mainland. It has a populat ...

) and 2008 (Campos do Jordão). The next conference will be held in November 2010, in

Porto de Galinhas Porto de Galinhas is a beach in the municipality of Ipojuca, Pernambuco, Brazil. Porto de Galinhas is a major tourist destination. The beach is famous for its bright-water beaches and the natural pools. It is part of the municipality of Ipojuca ...

, Pernambuco.

Publications

SBIS' flagship periodical is the on-line

scientific journal In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. Content Articles in scientific journals are mostly written by active scientists such as s ...

, ''

Journal of Health Informatics A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization * Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, ...

'' (Heimar Marin, Editor-in-Chief). It also publishes ''SBIS News'', an electronic bulletin hosted by Yahoo! Groups (

, editor-in-chief), and coordinates the SBIS-L

e-mail discussion list A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is re ...

Electronic Health Record Certification Project

In collaboration with the Brazilian Federal Council of Medicine since 2007, SBIS has developed one of few programs in the developing world geared towards the software certification in the area of electronic health records. The standards for access, information security,

digital certification In cryptography, a public key certificate, also known as a digital certificate or identity certificate, is an electronic document used to prove the validity of a public key. The certificate includes information about the key, information about the ...

, patient confidentiality, storage of records, etc., have been discussed together and officially approved by a number of decrees enforced by CFM and are part now of a Manual, a course for buildup of a task force of specialized consultants. The certification standards cover ambulatory healthcare, clinical laboratory and other areas, and in the future will be expanded for inpatient health records and

Picture archiving and communication system A picture archiving and communication system (PACS) is a medical imaging technology which provides economical storage and convenient access to images from multiple modalities (source machine types). Electronic images and reports are transmitted ...

Professional Education

In 2008 the Society approved the creation of a new initiative and a directorship to boost educational activities in health informatics. A website and a Learning Management System based on Moodle server were created in 2009 (addres

. The site is used to support presential courses as well as to offer purely distance courses, seminars, lectures, and other educational activities. The site has also a digital libraryBiblioteca Virtual em Informática em Saúde, São Paulo, 2009.
/ref> with on-line references to papers, reviews, e-books, multimedia files, etc., which are deemed useful for education and learning purposes. In addition,

webconferencing Web conferencing is used as an umbrella term for various types of online conferencing and collaborative services including webinars (web seminars), webcasts, and web meetings. Sometimes it may be used also in the more narrow sense of the peer-le ...

facilities using

DimDim Dimdim was a software company that provided a web-based platform for realtime collaboration and meetings. Dimdim provided web conferencing service where users could share desktops, show slides, collaborate, chat, talk, and broadcast via webcam. ...

have been added and can be used by associated individuals and institutions.

Professional Certificate in Health Informatics

In October 2009 the Society launched a program for certificating health care professionals as specialists, in a manner similar to medical specialties coordinated by the

Brazilian Medical Association The Brazilian Medical Association ( pt, Associação Médica Brasileira) founded in 1951, is the national class association of physicians in Brazil. With more than 140,000 associates, it is the second largest in the Americas, just after the American ...

and the Federal Council of Medicine in Brazil. The program entails a minimum list of technical proficiency, a written and oral annual examination, and the issue of a certificate which is valid for five years. The revalidation of the certificate will be mandatory by means of

continuing education Continuing education (similar to further education in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland) is an all-encompassing term within a broad list of post-secondary learning activities and programs. The term is used mainly in the United ...

credits. The Society installed also an educational accreditation program in place, for recognizing courses and

curricula In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...

in health informatics, for this purpose, with a point-based system of credits. The entire program is under the responsibility of a new Directorship of Professional Education, coordinated by Prof. Renato M.E. Sabbatini.

References

External links

SBIS Home Page

Journal of Health Informatics Home Page

Distance Education Site

Email Discussion Group

Electronic news bulletin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brazilian Society Of Health Informatics Medical and health organisations based in Brazil Health informatics and eHealth associations Organisations based in Campinas