IMIA Accreditation of Biomedical and Health Informatics Education: Current State and Future Directions

Summary

Objectives: The educational activities initiated by the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) have had global impacts and influenced national societies and local academic programs in the field of Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI). After the successful publication and dissemination of its educational recommendations, IMIA launched an accreditation procedure for educational programs in BMHI. The accreditation procedure was pilot tested by several BMHI academic programs in different countries and continents to obtain a global perspective.

Methods: This paper presents an overview of IMIA quality assurance and accreditation procedures along with feedback on issues and problems which emerged during the pilot.

Results: It appears that IMIA quality assurance and procedures worked quite well in different countries of Europe, the Middle East, South America, and Asia. These first experiences provided adequate information for adapting, modifying, and optimizing the procedures and finally for the planning of future activities.

Conclusions: IMIA accreditation framework comprises a single set of standards that apply at various levels to both academic and professional BMHI programs. The pilot phase confirmed the robustness and generalizability of quality assurance standards and associated procedures on which IMIA accreditation is based at an international level.

Keywords

Health informatics - biomedical informatics - education - recommendations - International Medical Informatics Association

• References

• 1 Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management –CAHIIM. www.CAHIIM.org Last visited: April 5, 2017.
• 2 Mantas J, Ammenwerth E, Demiris G, Hasman A, Haux R, Hersh W. et al. Recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on Education in Biomedical and Health Informatics. IMIA Recommendations on Education Task Force. Methods Inf Med 2010; Jan 7; 49 (02) 105-20.
• 3 Mantas J. Implementation of the recommendations in master’s courses in health informatics. Stud Health Technol Inform 2012; 174: 57-61.
• 4 Marcano-Cedeño A, Wageih MA, Gómez EJ, Mantas J. IMIA Dynamic Accreditation Procedure: Suggestions, Simplicity and Efficiency. Stud Health Technol Inform 2015; 213: 115-8.
• 5 Mantas J. Biomedical and Health Informatics Education - the IMIA Years. Yearb Med Inform 2016; Aug 2;Suppl 1: S92-S102.
• 6 Mantas J, Hasman A. IMIA Educational Recommendations and Nursing Informatics. Stud Health Technol Inform 2017; 232: 20-30.
• 7 Netherlands Flemish Accreditation Organ. https:// www.nvao.com/quality-assurance-systems/netherlands.
• 8 Hasman A, Mantas J. IMIA Accreditation of Health Informatics Programs. Health Inform Res 2013; Sep; 19 (03) 154-61.
• 9 International Medical Informatics Association. http:// imia-medinfo.org/wp/imia-accreditation-pilot/.
• 10 Mantas J, Hasman A, Shortliffe EH. Assessment of the IMIA educational accreditation process. Stud Health Technol Inform 2013; 192: 702-6.