Japan Association for Medical Informatics

Overview

　Japan Association for Medical Informatics was established in 1983 as a place for academic exchange among all researchers and practitioners interested in medical information ("Purpose of the establishment of Japan Association for Medical Informatics") reference). The predecessor of the Japan Association for Medical Informatics was the MEDINFO Study Group, which was established at the 58rd World Medical Informatics Conference (MEDINFO 1980) held in Tokyo in 3.

　Japan Association for Medical Informatics holds two major academic conferences a year: the Japan Association for Medical Informatics Fall Conference (Medical Informatics Union Conference) and the Japan Association for Medical Informatics Spring Conference (Japan Association for Medical Informatics Symposium). In addition, we have several research groups under our umbrella and are engaged in active academic activities. The members are not only doctors, but also nurses, pharmacists, clinical laboratory technicians, radiology technicians, administrative staff, medical history clerks, computer engineers, and other professions, making it an extremely interdisciplinary society. I am. Since its establishment, it has played a leading role internationally as the only academic society in Japan that is a member of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA).

Purpose of establishing Japan Association for Medical Informatics

　Medicine is an academic discipline that conducts research for the purpose of preventing, diagnosing, and treating diseases. For this reason, medicine involves the process of collecting a lot of information and making decisions; in other words, this is nothing but information processing.

　This process is equally important not only in clinical medicine, but also in basic medicine, health science, medical administration, and medical education. In this sense, it is no exaggeration to say that medicine has informatics as its foundation. Recently, the number of people specializing in research in medicine and medical information science is gradually increasing.

　On the other hand, the development of information science in recent years has been remarkable, and along with the progress of computer science, its results can now be applied to the elucidation of complex social phenomena. In addition, the unique needs of medicine are becoming a trigger, and results are beginning to emerge that will transform information science itself.

　Against this background, in recent years there has been a strong recognition of the need for a place for researchers who study medicine and medical information science to interact. For this reason, international conferences and symposiums on the subject of medical information were also held in Japan, with the Third International Conference on Medical Informatics (MEDINFO 1980) held in 3 being a representative one.

　Medical informatics researchers have already begun to organize their own academic societies in other countries, and these organizations have even come to form the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA).

　Considering this situation from Japan's perspective, up until now in Japan, MEDINFO study groups have existed as places for exchange of researchers, but these study groups alone have not been able to keep up with recent advances in medical informatics. Because of this, there have been calls for the need to reorganize this organization and establish a single academic society.

　From the above perspective, the Japan Association for Medical Informatics was established here, with the purpose of making it a place for academic exchange among all researchers and practitioners interested in medical information.

(November 1982)