Semantics and ontologies - opportunities and challenges for convergence held at the 10th International Special Topic Conference of the European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI - STC) on Seamless care - safe care: the challenges of interoperability and patient safety in healthcare.
The Convergence workshop concept is at the base of the pan-European infostructure vision and relates to better exploiting EU and nationally funded projects and implementation initiatives which may develop and contribute knowledge and components for such an infostructure. In a broad sense, such a pan-European infostructure may be composed of biomedical and health/medical research and knowledge databases, public health data repositories, health education information, electronic patient and personal health records respectively data warehouses, etc. It will require leadership and management, sustained organisational structures, well-governed processes and funding as well as a supportive, secure ICT infrastructure/network.
The goal of this workshop is to initiate a consensus and cooperation process between projects and initiatives through regular convergence workshops on relevant topics including technical, human, semantic, legal, and process aspects. This first Convergence Workshop, focusing on semantics and ontologies, is initiated by the FP7 DebugIT Integrating Project of which Prof. Christian Lovis, Geneva University Hospitals, is the scientific coordinator. The project is coordinated by Dr. Dirk Colaert of Agfa Healthcare. The EFMI STC2010 conference "Seamless care - safe care: the challenges of interoperability and patient safety in healthcare" with its many sessions on semantics, and the joint endorsement by HL7 and GS1, provides a great opportunity to focus on how semantic interoperability can support convergence.
The workshop will bring together various EU FP7 and CIP projects, including DebugIT, PSIP, EU-ADR, epSOS and CALLIOPE, for a full day meeting. The first three projects address semantic interoperability challenges by developing interoperable platforms and infrastructures, federated virtual distributed data bases, ontologies, and knowledge management platforms. These could become converging parts of a future pan-EU infostructure. epSOS is a large scale project focusing on cross-border exchange of patient summary and ePrescription and CALLIOPE is developing in an open, transparent process of stakeholder engagement a first version of a European eHealth Interoperability Roadmap.
The objectives of this first Convergence Workshop are to share approaches developed, results achieved, challenges identified, and to reach agreements on further process towards convergence on topics such as drug terminology and ontology consolidation.
The first half of the day is for invited projects' representatives only. The afternoon session is open to all participants of the conference. They are able to register at the EFMI membership rate of €200 when mentioning their attendance at the workshop. A special rate of €120 for one day attendance is reserved for "Convergence Workshop" only attendees. For registration, please contact the conference organiser Sky via http://www.sky.is/efmi-stc-2010-.html.
For further information, please download the workshop presentation at www.debugit.eu.
About EFMI
The European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI) was formed in 1976 with assistance from the Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Orgnisation (WHO). Formed as a nonprofit organization, the EFMI is concerned with the theory and practice of information science and technology within health and health science in a European context. The objectives of the EFMI are to advance international co-operation and dissemination of information in medical informatics on a European basis; to promote high standards in the application of medical informatics; to promote research and development in medical informatics; to encourage high standards in education in medical informatics; and to function as the autonomous European Regional Council of IMIA. For more information, visit www.efmi.org.