The 14th International Congress on Nursing Informatics, NI2018, was held in Guadalajara Mexico, from June 6 to 8, 2018. This inaugural "light" conference was sponsored by the International Medical Informatics Association's Nursing Informatics Special Interest Group (IMIA-NISIG) and hosted by Mexican Medical Informatics Association (AMIM), the Mexican Ministry of Health, including the National Commission of Medical Arbitration, and Federation of Medical Informatics for Latin America and the Caribbean (IMIA LAC). The IMIA Nursing Informatics Special Interest Group conceptualized the idea of the "light" congress at the NI2014 meeting. The purpose of the "light" congress is to catalyze the development and growth of nursing informatics within the host country and to energize nursing to become more actively involved in nursing informatics and understand the value of informatics tools.
The goal was to provide a small, informal, and friendly environment so participants new to the discipline of nursing informatics can engage in conversation and interact with presenters and other participants. In this spirit, there were numerous panels and poster presentations where the audience could ask questions and engage in dialogue. This goal was realized in Guadalajara as the intimate environment afforded participants and presenters with many opportunities to network.
The conference theme was "Information & Communication Technologies to Improve Quality and Safety at the Point of Care." The program had six tracks: (1) point-of-care solutions, models, and devices; (2) big data analytics and decision support; (3) meaningful use of electronic information systems; (4) quality, safety, and ethics; (5) patient participation and citizen involvement; and (6) education, competence, and capacity building. Paper presentations, panels, and posters were organized around these six tracks.
The Scientific Program Committee received the following submissions: 37 papers, 13 student papers and posters, 87 posters, eight panels, and two workshop proposals. After final Scientific Program Committee review, 30 papers, five student papers, 60 posters, four student posters, eight panels, and two workshops were accepted.
The conference was highlighted by three keynote speakers. The first, Suzanne Bakken, PhD, FACMI, FAAN, of Columbia University, spoke on "Improving Latino Health Through Nursing Informatics." The second, Heimar F Marin, RN, PhD, FACMI, The Alumni Professor at Federal University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, editor in chief of International Journal of Medical Informatics, Elsevier, and senior consultant at Hospital Sirio Libanes, Sao Paulo, Brazil, spoke on "Digital Health Communities and Patient Engagement." And the third, Marion Ball, EdD, FACMI, FAAN, senior advisor healthcare informatics at the Center for Computational Health IBM Research and professor emerita at Johns Hopkins University, gave the closing address on "The Technology & Caring Interface: How Far Have We Come?"
There were also two workshops that preceded the congress. The first, "Information Visualization: A Systematic Method for Identifying Data Attributions Pertinent to Effective DESIGNS," was organized by Drs Adriana Arcia and Samantha Stonbraker from Columbia University. The second, "TIGER: Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform: The Future of Interprofessional Education," was organized by Dr Polun Chang, professor, Institute of Biomedical Informatics, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan. Both provided valuable information and knowledge to understand how to visualize data and how to prepare future nurses to practice in an ever-changing digital health environment.
The proceedings of the conference are open access and available for download at http://ebooks.iospress.nl/ISBN/978-1-61499-872-3
There were 130 participants in the conference. The 23 countries represented include Australia, Austria, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Finland, Ghana, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United States.
As part of the NI2018 Congress, the IMIA-NISIG had its General Assembly Meeting prior to the conference. The focus of the General Assembly Meeting was to flush out details for the strategic plan and to vote on the NI2020 bid. It is with great pleasure to announce that the NI2020 conference will be held July 26 to 28, 2020, in Brisbane, Australia. It will be hosted by Nursing Informatics Australia Special Interest Group, in collaboration with the Health Informatics Society of Australia. Stay tuned for more information about this conference and the call for participation.
In addition, the IMIA-NISIG presented their Leadership Award on the first day of the conference to Dr Virginia Saba. The Leadership Award was instituted in 2015 by the Executive Committee to recognize NI Leadership in Nursing Practice, Nursing Education, and/or Nursing Research. The Leadership Award is granted to a pioneer who is considered a national and international leader. Dr Virginia Saba is a recognized pioneer who has, over the last 40 years, initiated and cultivated the discipline of nursing informatics throughout the United States and across the globe.