A summary of facts about the past MEAHI conferences are as the following:​

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1. First conference :

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• Date, and Venue  : October 2002, Dubai Internet City , UAE ;

• Theme : “ Education and Research in Health Informatics “ ;​

• Attendees : 180 ;

• Format: Invited speakers (keynote address and plenary lectures​​​​​​​​​).

• Patron : HE Sheikh Nahyan Mabarak Al Nahyan , UAE Minister of Education ;

• Conference Program Coordinators : Prof.Iain Ledingham & Dr.Paul Whatling , RCSED/UK ;

• Sponsors: Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh/UK , WHO-EMRO , UAE- University , DOHMS/UAE

2. Second conference :

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• Date, and Venue : April 2005, Dubai Knowledge Village , UAE ;

• Theme  :  “ The role of informatics in healthcare ; its implementation in clinical practice & development of training & research across the Middle East Region “ ;

• Attendees : 220 ;

• Format : Invited speakers (keynote address and plenary lectures), oral presentations, poster sessions, workshop sessions .

• Patron : HE Sheikh Nahyan Mabarak Al Nahyan , UAE Minister of Education ;

• Conference Program Coordinators : Prof.Iain Ledingham & Dr.Paul Whatling , RCSED/UK ;

• Sponsors : Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh/UK , WHO-EMRO , IMIA , IrMIA , UAE- University , DOHMS/UAE , MOH/UAE , HCT/UAE , ZAYED-University , Dubai Knowledge Village , Harvard Medical School-Dubai Center , Dubai Healthcare City , British Council/UAE , University of BATH/UK , British University in Dubai  .

3. Third conference :

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• Date, and Venue : March 2010 , Riviera Hotel , Beirut , Lebanon ;

• Theme  : “The interoperability in healthcare: role of biomedical & health informatics “ ;

• Attendees : 40 ;

• Format: Invited speakers (keynote address and plenary lectures).

• Patron : General Michel Suleiman , the President of the Republic of Lebanon ;

• Conference Program Coordinator : Dr.Hala Badreddine , LMIA President ;

• Sponsors : WHO-EMRO , MOH/Lebanon , IMIA , IFIP , IrMIA , LMIA , AUB , HDF , DELL-UK , DELL-Jordan , BMH International.

There are lessons that we learned during a decade by holding such regional events through organizing activities, and the discussions exchanged as the following:

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• There are growing enthusiasms among healthcare professionals in regard to health informatics in the region, however , the health informatics is in the early stages to be recognized as a viable profession in the region ;

• The Gap between policy and practice , political instabilities and economic issues  in member states affect the scientific productions in the field of health informatics in the region ;

• The most industrial products are from multinational companies and shows the lack of local & regional industrial involvements , therefore there are very rare job creations in this field in the region ;

• There are many issues of parallel work in this field with lack of accreditation and evaluation which led to failures for deployment of nationwide e-health systems in the region ;

• Marketing for such professional events is quite crucial as it will augment the existing professional network and a method for raising the awareness of this discipline among different sectors in healthcare domain.

4. Fourth Conference

 

The 4th MEAHI Conference had been held on 22-24 April, 2013, in Hotel Crowne Plaza, Deira, Dubai, with the theme “Applied Health Informatics: A Regional Trend or Priority“. 

For details of the conference please visit the 4th MEAHI Conference' page. 

 

Dr.Ramin Moghaddam, MEAHI Founding President



Last updated on December 15 2013