THI – Translational Health Informatics

Chair:

  • Mauro Giacomini

Co-Chair:

  The knowledge about human health is accumulating rapidly, with enormous amounts of new types of data, in which most of the data items are currently of unknown significance, but with the recognition that they are determinant to our health (e.g., genomics).  The classical methodology of controlled clinical trials is not sufficient anymore and there is a need to refine traditionally-established evidences with results of data-driven analytics. Combined together, new insights are gained that could help out at the point of care, in cases where existing clinical guidelines fall short of providing precise advice on the decision needed to be taken.

Translational medicine is a relatively new discipline targeted at removing barriers in utilizing new scientific discoveries in healthcare, moving from bench to bedside, on to communities and finally to policy. The biomedical discoveries need to be accompanied by studies in areas such as health economy as well as sociological and psychological aspects. In order to manage the information generated by each of these disciplines, it is crucial to use advanced informatics that could fuse the various types of data into computerized systems that support the translational processes.

This Working Group will be focused on the health informatics needed for accommodating the translational challenges. In particular, we will target the following goals:

  • Explore a proposal for a Translational Health Information Language to underlie translational info-structure (see details in the document “Towards Translational Health Information Language” under the Files tab)
  • Demonstrate feasibility of common translational infostructure for the currently distinct environments of biomedical research and health care
  • Support studies focusing on informatics underlying translational research and medicine
  • Foster better interrelation of bioinformatics and medical informatics
  • Discuss major challenges in the new OMICS era with regard to translational health informatics and analytics

Activities planned for 2021:

  • Organization and Participation of EFMI STC 2021 to be held in fall in Seville, Spain
  • Held a business meeting of the THI WG during this event.
  • Organization and Participation of pHealth 2021to be held in Keele University, Staffordshire, United Kingdom, 15 – 17 September 2021

Activities in 2020:

Activities in 2019:

  • Participated in the EFMI STC 2019 (https://stc2019.plri.de/), held in Hanover, Germany, in organization and leadership positions.
  • Held a business meeting of the THI WG and elected a new vice-chair.

Activities in 2018:

Activities in 2017:

  • Organizing a special event for Translational Health Information Solutions in MIE 2017
  • Workshop in MIE 2017, Wednesday April 26: EFMI working group on translational health informatics – emerging technological approaches for addressing translational medicine needs
  • For more details, see the full EFMI WGs Report, to be published after MIE 2018.

Activities in 2016:

  • Converging synergies with Translational initiatives in the medical field like “European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine (EATRIS)
  • For more details, see the full EFMI WGs Report for 2017.

Relevant Activities 2015:

In 2015, Prof. Mauro Giacomini was nominated as EFMI THI vice-char. Mauro is of DIBRIS, University of Genova, E-mail: Mauro.Giacomini@dibris.unige.it

  • Held EFMI THI WG Workshop and business meeting at MIE 2015
  • Elected a co-chair at the MIE 2015 workshop – prof. Mauro Giacomini of the University of Genova
  • Amnon mentioned the group activities and its proposed principles on translation health language and warehousing solutions and his keynote speech in MedInfo 2015
  • Amnon participated at a cross-group workshop of all WGs related to translational, genomics and clinical bioinformatics at MedInfo 2015
  • Amnon participated in a panel at MedIndo 2015 of representative of IMIA, AMIA and EFMI working groups related to genomics, translation and personalized medicine: “The meaning of precision medicine for EFMI THI Working Group. Toward precision medicine: extending the biomedical informatics community tent.”
  • Amnon has been co-editing a paper resulting from the above MedInfo 2015 panel

Relevant Publications 2015:

  • Shabo, A. Translational & Interoperable Health Infostructure – The Servant of Three Masters. Keynote speech at MedInfo 2015, Sao Paulo, August 23, 2015.

 Activities 2014:

  • Gave an EFMI THI WG talk on Translational & Interoperable Health Infostructure – The Servant of Three Masters. Seminar at the Department of Biomedical Informatics, Arizona State University. Phoenix, May 6, 2014.
  • Gave an EFMI THI WG talk on Translational & Interoperable Health Infostructure – The Servant of Three Masters. Seminar at the National Library of Medicine, Lister Hill, NIH Campus. Bethesda, May 8, 2014.
  • Gave an EFMI THI WG talk on Translational & Interoperable Health Infostructure – The Servant of Three Masters. Grand Rounds talk at Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore, May 9, 2014.
  • Gave an EFMI THI WG talk on Translational & Interoperable Health Infostructure – The Servant of Three Masters at the DIA (Drug Information Association) 26th Annual EuroMeeting, Vienna 2014, March 25-27, 2014.
  • Held an EFMI THI WG Workshop introducing the Translational Health Informatics Working Group, at the EFMI STC 2014. Budapest, 28 April, 2014.Held an EFMI THI WG Workshop at MIE 2014, September 2nd, Istanbul .
  • Gave an EFMI THI WG talk on Translational & Interoperable Health Infostructure – The Servant of Three Masters. FDA Workshop on NGS Standards. NIH Campus in Bethesda, September 24, 2014.
  • Gave an EFMI THI WG talk on Translational & Interoperable Health Infostructure – The Servant of Three Masters. George Washington University Information Systems Seminar, September 23, 2014.
  • Held an EFMI THI WG Workshop at the eHEALTH &IMIA Day in WCIT (World Congress on IT) in September 30th, 2014 (http://wcit2014.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/WCIT-eHealth-1509.pdf).
  • Gave an EFMI THI WG Talk at the Barcelona Debate on Big Data in Biomedicine: Challenges and Opportunities, held in Barcelona on November 11-12, 2014 (http://www.bdebate.org/sites/default/files/archivos/debate/dossier/bdebate_bib_big_data_dossier_web_0.pdf).

Relevant Publications 2014:

  • Contributed to the following IMIA Yearbook: Nakaya, M. Kimura, S. Ogishima, A. Shabo, I. K. Kim, C. Parisot, B. de Faria Leao. Future Direction of IMIA Standardization: Report from the IMIA Standardization Working Group. Yearb Med Inform. 2014; 9(1): 105–109.
  • Shabo, A. (2014). Translational & Interoperable Health Infostructure – The Servant of Three Masters. EC FP7 Khresmoi Consortium meeting, Vienna. March 26, 2014.

If you want to become a member of the THI Working Group, please contact with the Chair of the Working Group