ACHI to be represented at international forum on distance learning

ACHI President Terry Hannan has been invited to attend an international forum intended to develop a framework for international distance learning in biomedical and health informatics. The forum is part of a project, organised by the American Medical Informatics Association, whose goal is to to establish a sustainable training infrastructure for a global e-Health workforce.

The text of AMIA's invitation to Terry Hannan is reproduced below.

Dear Terry Hannan

We write to invite you to participate in a new AMIA project that will develop a framework for international distance learning in biomedical and health informatics. Our ultimate goal, working through and with others, is to establish a sustainable training infrastructure for a global e-Health workforce. A well-trained diverse informatics workforce can help organizations at varying levels of information and communications technology adoption maximize the effectiveness of their investment and in so doing maximize the impact on safety, quality, effectiveness and efficiency of care of patients and populations. This initiative builds on AMIA’s successful experience in distance learning in the United States (i.e., the 10 x 10 program) and is made possible by a twelve month planning grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. As a result of this project, AMIA will deliver a plan for its international distance learning program in biomedical and health informatics to the Rockefeller Foundation in March 2009.

This planning process will begin December 9-11, 2008 in London with a conference of approximately 20 stakeholder representatives and thought leaders. The Wellcome Trust is hosting the meeting for us. The conference will begin at 3:00 pm on December 9th and conclude at 1:00 pm on December 11th. In addition to the conference, project activities include a pre-conference review of existing informatics artifacts, development of draft documents by small working groups, a structured review of draft documents produced as a result of the retreat, regular communication among project participants, and preparation of a follow-on grant application to implement the proposed approach.