Sunday, September 5, 2010
IMIA Working Groups
Last updated: 11/11/2008
Informatics in Genomic Medicine (IGM)
Founded: 2004
Membership: 28
Chair   Term of Office: 2007-2010
Martin-Sanchez, Dr. Fernando J, PhD
Head of the Medical Bioinformatics Department
National Institute of Health 'Carlos III'
Majadahonda Madrid Spain 28220
+34 91 822 32 19
+34 91 822 32 59
Vice-Chair   Term of Office: 2007-2010
Tarczy-Hornoch, Mr. Peter , M.D.
Head, Division of Biomedical and Health Informatics
University of Washington
Seattle WA USA 98195
+1 206 685 8093
+1 206 543 3461
Goals & Objectives

Objectives:
Opportunities arise within the discipline of biomedical informatics to facilitate the advancement of genomic and individualised medicine. To effectively link the genotype and phenotype a bi-directional flow of data, tools and methods between two traditionally separate areas of informatics (clinical informatics and bioinformatics) must be ensured.

These interests include, but are not limited to:
- Integrating molecular and genomic information (genetic testing, mutation analysis, gene and protein expression) into health information systems and tools (electronic health records, computerised protocols and clinical guidelines, clinical trials in the context of pharmacogenetics, molecular imaging).
- Generating structured, standardised, anonymous clinical data sets (phenomic data) to be used in the context of post-genomic research (for annotation and validation of experimental results)
- Facilitating new approaches for the integration and analysis of different levels of information (molecular, cellular, tissue, organ, patient, population) about diseases (grid, biobanks, disease modelling and simulation, mapping of clinical and genetic databases and ontologies).

The IGM WG aims to:
- Provide a forum to enhance collaboration, share experiences, and promote research in this field
- Increase communication with other working groups at IMIA, AMIA and other organizations relevant to IGM including groups with an emphasis on genomic medicine and informatics from the biomedical community, computing research and bioinformatics as relevant.
- Establish itself as a scientific reference on issues related to information technology projects in genomic medicine.

Recent Activities:

PARTICIPATION IN WORKING GROUPS AND CONTACTS WITH OTHER ASSOCIATIONS:
- Participation at the Workshop "International Strategic Informatics Collaboration Through IMIA's Working Groups: Implications for AMIA´s Member and Working Groups". Joint meeting of IMIA and AMIA Working Groups in the Fall AMIA Conference. Washington, November 2006.
- Participation in the IMIA Strategic Planning Task Force.
- Contacts with ERCIM´s (European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics) Working Group in Biomedical Informatics.
- Presentation of the Working Group at coordination meetings of the European Network of Excellence in Biomedical Informatics INFOBIOMED

PARTICIPATION IN SCIENTIFIC EVENTS:
- Invited conference "Molecular Medicine and Individualised Healthcare: defining a Research Agenda" at the Workshop "New Technologies and Medical Decision Making" organised by the European Science Foundation. Kiel, Germany. Oct 2006.
- Invited conference: "Professionalism in Health Informatics" as Chair of the IMIA Working Group "Informatics in Genomic Medicine". Technical Forum of the Spanish Health Informatics Society. La Coruña, Spain, Oct. 2006.
- Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Iberoamerican Bioinformatic Network (RIB) Buenos Aires, Argentina. Nov 06.
- International Symposium on Biological and Medical Data Analysis - ISBMDA 06. Keynote Session: "Creating synergies between bioinformatics and medical informatics". Thessaloniki, Greece, Dic. 2006. (http://isbmda06.med.auth.gr/program.php)
- Invited conference at the Polytechnical University: "Convergent technologies: new opportunities for the advancement of biomedical and information sciences". Madrid, Dic. 06.
- Presentation and organization of the Workshop "Converging Technologies for the Improvement of Clinical Diagnosis and Management at the Point of Care (POC)". Forum Convergent Technologies -NBIC Barcelona, Spain. Jan. 2007.
- Invited conference at the Annual Meeting of the IOIBD (International Organization for the study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease) Avila, Spain. April 2007.
- Presentation at the Symposium "Clinical and epidemiological data management in R&D of new drugs" Organized by the Knowledge Management Group of the Spanish Technological Platform for Innovative Medicines. Madrid, May, 2007.
- Presentation at the Joint Meeting of the Iberoamerican Bioinformatic Network (RIB) and EMBNet Torremolinos, Spain. Jun 07.
- Invited talk: "Convergent technologies (NBIC) in pHealth: Major challenges and opportunities" at the IV Conference "Personalised Health (pHealth)". Porto Carras, Greece. Jun 07.

PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH PROJECTS FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION (INFORMATION SOCIETY TECHNOLOGIES PROGRAM):
- SYMBIOMATICS - Specific Support Action: Synergies in Medical Informatics and Bioinformatics coordinated by the EBI, 2005-2006.
- BEYOND THE HORIZON - Coordinated action, supported by the Information Society Technologies/Future and Emerging Technologies programme (IST-FET) of the European Commission. Coordination of the thematic area: Bio-ICT Synergies. 2005-2006.

ORGANIZATION OF SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES
- Member of the Technical Program Committee of the Conference ICICT 2006 - International Conference on Information and Communication Technology. El Cairo-Egypt. Dec 2006.
http://www.icict.gov.eg/ICICT-2006/committees.html
- Member of the Organizing Committee of the IX National Conference of Health Informatics in Spain, (INFORSALUD´07) with more than 1000 attendants. Madrid, March, 2007. Organization of an International session endorsed by EFMI and IMIA, including a presentation about IMIA by Prof. Kulikowski (IMIA VP).
- Member of the Organizing Committee of the International Symposium of Research in Biomedical Informatics, endorsed by IMIA. Barcelona June 07.
- IEEE Conference CBMS 2007. The 20th IEEE International Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems. Member of the Program Committee for the Track "Bioinformatics and its Medical Applications", Maribor, Slovenia. June 2007.

https://www.cs.tcd.ie/~zamolota/CBMS_Bioinformatics07.html

PRESENTATION OF THE WORKING GROUP AT DIFFERENT EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES:
- Master: "Bioinformatics for Health Sciences". Pompeu Fabra University. Barcelona.
- PhD course: "Biomedical Informatics" Polytechnical University of Madrid.
- Master: "Health Knowledge Management" Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca en Madrid. UPSAM.
- Ph D. Program: "Biomedical Informatics" Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca en Madrid. UPSAM.
- Three courses organized by the Spanish National Bioinformatics Institute Training Node in health centers of Zaragoza, Palma de Mallorca and Navarra, SPAIN

PUBLICATIONS
- Joint publication: Louie B, Mork P, Martin-Sanchez F, Halevy A, Tarczy-Hornoch P. "Data integration and genomic medicine". J Biomed Inform. 2007 Feb; 40 (1):5-16.
- Members of the IMIA Strategic Planning (including F. Martin-Sanchez). "Strategy in a Fishbowl. An Invitation to Determine the Shape of IMIA in 2015". Methods of Information in Medicine 2006; 45 (3): 235-9.
- Guest edition of the Special Issue "Biomedical Informatics: Research and Applications" for the Journal IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine. In press.

Future Activities:
- Publication of the new web page.
- To formalize relationship with the AMIA GEN-WG (Genomics)
- Joint activity with AMIA Genomics WG at AMIA Fall Conference, Nov, 2007. Chicago.
- Business meeting and Workshop at MEDINFO 2007. August 23rd, Brisbane, Australia.
- Joint activity with AMIA Genomics WG at Translational Bioinformatics Summit - AMIA - San Francisco, March 2008
- Participation at the IMIA Bio surveillance Task Force
- To consolidate a community of scientists interested in the application of Informatics to facilitate individualised healthcare
- To set up collaborative information services and tools (Wiki, mailing list, forum)
- To start conversations with other relevant stakeholders in Biomedical Informatics (ISCB, HL7)
- To explore the field of Health Applications of Convergent Technologies (NBIC) and possible links of Biomedical Informatics with new trends in biomedical research (Regenerative, Nanomedicine). Prepare a review article.

Interested in joining this group? Click HERE to enquire.