The Indian Association for Medical Informatics (IAMI) is a

professional society A professional association (also called a professional body, professional organization, or professional society) usually seeks to further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in that profession, and the ...

that plays a role in promoting and furthering the application of informatics in the fields of healthcare, bioscience and

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It was established in Feb 1993 by Prof. Dr. Nanduri Gajanana Rao BSc, MBBS, MNAMS, PhD (Computer Aided Medicine) at Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad. Registered at District Registrar of Societies on 18 Sep 1993 - Regn No. 3774/93

Goals and objectives

The objectives of the IAMI are to sensitize the Indian

medical Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...

community to the benefits of

Information Technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of Data (computing), data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information te ...

(IT), bring about awareness and ensure greater utilization of IT in healthcare facilities across the length and breadth of India. The IAMI also aims to bring together the computer professionals and medical professionals and to provide necessary assistance and guidance to other organizations to implement and reap the benefits of IT for a high quality health care. It supports introduction of

computer literacy Computer literacy is defined as the knowledge and ability to use computers and related technology efficiently, with skill levels ranging from elementary use to computer programming and advanced problem solving. Computer literacy can also refer ...

along with medical education, development of computerized clinical records as well as medical

digital libraries A digital library, also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, or a digital collection is an online database of digital objects that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital documents, or other digital m ...

, access to

information Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...

and creation of

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases s ...

s and Knowledge Bases for AI applications. IAMI emphasizes organized research and development of medical informatics as an independent discipline. It provides various communication and interaction channels among its members by means of e-groups and through publication of a scholarly journal (IJMI). Ng rao

Affiliation

It is the Indian National Member at IMIA. Affiliated to ICHA, Telemedicine Society of India AHHA and AHA

History

IAMI was registered in September 1993 with its Registered Office being the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

, India by the Founder Prof (Dr) N G Rao. The first President (Honorary) was Dr RD Lele, Professor of Nuclear Medicine and Director, Jaslok Hospital, Bombay. It has been organising a conference every two years on roles and applications of informatics in medicine, health and allied fields in various states of India. The first biennial conference was held in 1995 at Hyderabad by the Founder Prof Dr NG Rao. The second conference was held in 1997 at

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute was ...

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

by Dr Lazar Mathew, Director of DEBEL under the Presidentship of Dr RD Lele. The third conference in 1999 in Hyderabad was postponed due to natural calamities. A workshop was held at NIMS in lieu of the conference by the Then President, Dr N G Rao. The third conference was held in 2001 in New Delhi by Dr Ajit Bal, Atul Bal and Dr Naval Kishore under the presidentship of Prof NG Rao. The fourth conference was held in 2003 at PGIMER,

Chandigarh Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which a ...

by Dr OP Sharma, the President Elect under the guidance of the then President Dr N G Rao. A mid-conference was held in 2004 at the South-Eastern Railways Hospital,

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

by the then President, Dr OP Sharma and Dr AS Sanyal of Indian Railways. The fifth conference was held in 2005 at Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences in Amritsar by the then President Dr OP Sharma and Prof Sanjay Bedi. The sixth conference, IAMI-2007, was an International Conference organized at Amtita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi by the then President Dr SB Gogia and Dr Ajit N Babu of the Institute. The seventh conference, IAMI-2009 was held at Hyderabad by Dr Bhudeb Chakrabarty under the Presidentship of Dr SB Bhattacharyya. The eighth conference IAMI-2012 was organized in Jaipur in collaboration with Telemedicine Society of India by the then President Prof Sanjay Bedi and Dr (Maj Gen) AK Singh of Telemedicine Society. The ninth conference IAMI-2014 was an International Conference organized by the then President Dr Sushil Meher in AIIMS, New Delhi along with Dr SB Gogia as Chairman. The tenth conference IAMI-2016 was organized in AIIMS, Bhubaneswar by the then President Dr Sushil Meher and Dr Saroj K Das as Chairman. IAMI has conducted many beginners' courses in Computer Aided Medicine for

doctor Doctor or The Doctor may refer to: Personal titles * Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree * A medical practitioner, including: ** Physician ** Surgeon ** Dentist ** Veterinary physician ** Optometrist *Other roles ** ...

nurse Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health c ...

paramedic A paramedic is a registered healthcare professional who works autonomously across a range of health and care settings and may specialise in clinical practice, as well as in education, leadership, and research. Not all ambulance personnel are p ...

al personnel and computer professionals also. This enabled the association in enrolling many hospitals and medical

institute An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations ( research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

s; and few computer

organization An organization or organisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is an legal entity, entity—such as ...

s as Institutional Life Members. IAMI made many hospitals and nursing homes purchase computers and start automation of Hospital Information Services. Since 1999 until 2020, IAMI was conducting every alternate year seminars and workshops for medical professionals. It is now aiming at making Medical Informatics as one of the elective subjects in the UG curriculum for all medical colleges in India and to get academic credits from the

Medical Council of India The Medical Council of India (MCI) was a statutory body for establishing uniform and high standards of medical education in India until its dissolution on 25 September 2020 when it was replaced by National Medical Commission. The Council grante ...

and other autonomous bodies under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (India),

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

for all the delegates participating in the

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 ...

seminar A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some parti ...

s and

workshop Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the on ...

s organized by the association. In 2001, it started a discussion group for medical informatics. Which has now grown into the de facto information source for medical informatics-related activities in India for its members as well as non-members. Its active members include almost everyone in the medical informatics scene of India. IAMI started its own website in 2002 in a small way and in 2018, it was redeveloped on a large scale. (URL- https://www.iami-new.org.in. Its ''Indian Journal of Medical Informatics'' (''IJMI'', ) was started in May 2004.

Membership

IAMI membership consists of Personal, Institutional and Honorary Members. In 2018, there are 27 Institutional Members and about 700 Individual Members. Major institutes and hospitals are AIIMS, New Delhi, NIMS, Hyderabad, MNJ Institute of Oncology, Hyderabad, Mahavir Hospital, Hyderabad, Apollo Health Street, Hyderabad, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sevagram, Guru Ramdas Institute of Medical Sciences, Amritsar, Lucknow Medical College, Lucknow and Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi. Many of its old and present office bearers are part of several

(GOI) initiatives in the areas of telemedicine, especially in the area of development of standards and guidelines for the practice of telemedicine, online medical education and

electronic medical 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 or electronic health records.

Journal

It produces the scientific journal called ''Indian Journal of Medical Informatics''.

Discussion group

Members of the association have an active discussion grouphttps://groups.google.com/group/iami_gen where healthcare IT enthusiasts discuss topics of their interest. Several discussion threads run in parallel. There is also a "topic of the month" which is the main focus of the discussion.

References

External links

IAMIList of Mentors in Healthcare Informatics''Indian Journal of Medical Informatics'' (''IJMI'')
{{Authority control Health informatics and eHealth associations Information technology organisations based in India Medical and health organisations based in India