Dispatches from the hi-blogs.info krew

NI’09 Opening Ceremony June 28, 2009

Opening ceremony & speeches under way promptly at 17:00 in the grand hall with a scheduled conclusion of 19:00 and spectacular weather outside. Attendance is not overwhelming but about what one would expect for the beginning of the conference as I look out over the audience from my back section advantage. Peter is twittering this session at @ni2009 on Twitter.

Initial speech provided by ‘stand-in’ (my apology for not including names as I missed hearing the names nor am I very good at spelling using the Finnish language) for Health Minister (who, a nurse, is out on sick leave). Speech focuses on current status of nursing in Finland as well as hopes and or anticipated future direction. ePortfolio for nurses discussed as success story for nurses throughout Finland. Various tools provided to nurses to manage career and or academic information and is used for employment advancement. eHealth in Finland is next topic. Facilitation of ehealth is via standard ‘items’ in documentation regardless of format (paper or electronic). The public is very trusting of electronic documentation, too. Central data storage is the direction of the future helps with centralizing government health services. While promising there are hurdles Finland needs to overcome (overlapping IT initiatives, control costs, electronic signatures, etc.).

Robyn Carr, current IMIA-NI president, next speaker. Various committees recognized by audience. This is her final conference in the role as president and will pass on the ‘baton’ to the incoming president. The next item, at least common to the NIs I’ve attended in the past, is performance of native music / culture, in this case Finnish folk song and dance from, I think the Sibelius group (not sure). Had I practiced with this interface I would have recorded and included the performance in this entry. Nicely performed, too, I might add – wonderful.

The next speaker is the Scientific Committee chair person, Kaija Saranto. She describes the process of the committee as well as those involved with this evaluative process along with the themes. A history of this conference provided by Kaija. She introduced the keynote speakers, Dr. Reinhold Haux & Dr. Michael Marschollek, both from Germany. The title of their speech is “Sensor-enhanced health information systems for ambient assisted living: New opportunities for nursing informatics?” Flow is outlined as demographic change, health-enabling technologies (HET), new ways of living and care and then include examples with a closing of new opportunities for nursing informatics. Dr. Haux also provides a shameless plug for Medinfo2010 to be held at Cape Town, South Africa. His point regarding demographic change is the ‘aging population’ with reservations of the term ‘aging’. Several nice graphics illustrate the rise of aging and decline in the care givers (health & non-health care persons). Next topic is health-enabling technologies (p-health). Primarily reference is sensors, their use, and ability to interact with health systems within a home environment. Several considerations of use outlined included cost of the technology to the user, specifically in Germany. Opportunities for such HET include increasing life expectancy as well as quality of life (these points sound very similar to points raised during a post-conference meeting after NI2006). He stresses also the need for interdisciplinary research involving all providers and caregivers. A nice reference list, for their work, is provided in the presentation. I believe if one is interested in this list Dr. Haux would be more than willing to email the list to those who contact him about it.

The graphic titled ‘double circle’ is provided as depicted in Informatics for Health and Social Care (2008); 33, pp. 77 – 89. I can’t do justice to this graphic so feel free to look it up. He uses this to depict new opportunities for health care. Next is examples provided by his colleague, Dr. Michael Marschollek. His sensor he includes real-time display of his ecg with triaxial accelerometer (motion sensor) under real-life conditions, recording daily physiological stresses. Very interesting project and results presented. A search of Google Scholar on Dr. Michael Marschollek provided additional published results of this research. Dr. Marschollek then moved into the ‘smart home’ concept and use of this technology in this sort of environment. One use is to help detect and or prevent falls. Another possibility is patient feedback with sensors to help patients’ manage their own health. Dr. Haux provides the concluding comments of the presentation including opportunities for ni. NI should be a leader in this sort of research and efforts; knowledge shared via many ways including conferences; ni education should include HET. He closed with shameless plug for Medinfo2010.

Dr. Anneli Ensio provided some housekeeping announcements. Keynote for tomorrow morning has changed, d/t health issue, to Dr. David Bates followed by Dr. Charles Friedman in the afternoon. Rosemary Kennedy final speaker, duly noted to be listed by Healthcare Management as one of the 25 most influential women in health care in the USA. Now off to the Wintergarten Room for the opening reception. Done for now!