On Friday, February 21, 2020, the Consumer Health Informatics Working Group (WG) (CHI) of the German Society for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology e.V. (GMDS) met for its annual working meeting at the premises of ZTG GmbH in Bochum. The meeting aimed to continue the previous scientific and practice-oriented exchange, to discuss current developments, and to focus intensively on the activities of the CHI working group this year.
After a brief welcome and round of introductions, the participants first discussed the workshop planned by the WG and the GMDS & CEN-IBS Invited Session planned as part of the GMDS annual conference on September 10, 2020, in Berlin. As the WG would like to see a broad and interdisciplinary composition of the audience, the WG would like to encourage as many different decision-makers and stakeholders in the healthcare sector as possible to attend the workshop and actively contribute their expertise. The WG management will provide information on this in the coming weeks.
The event entitled “DIY Digital Health – Are we simply helping ourselves?” is designed as a double session so that participants can take part in both sessions or just attend part. The event will focus on the phenomenon that citizens and patients are increasingly taking their healthcare into their own hands using digital technologies or even developing their own technologies thus increasingly influencing traditional healthcare. By inviting external speakers from different areas of healthcare and civil society and actively involving the audience, the session offers plenty of scope for interesting and controversial discussions on the topic of consumer health informatics.
In addition to the GMDS annual conference, the working group or individual members have repeatedly participated in various national and international conferences with submissions in the past. The topic of the working meeting was therefore also to explore upcoming congresses and conferences and to consider in which event and in which format participation is possible and desirable. The WG’s Leadership will disseminate information on this on the website and via various channels.
In addition, the participants also reported on their current work priorities to filter out any collaborations or synergies and promote interdisciplinary exchange within the working group. The working group itself is also very interested in networking with other, related working groups, so networking opportunities were also discussed intensively at the meeting.
The participants then agreed that the topic of Consumer Health Informatics will continue to be relevant in the future, especially in light of current legal and political developments – keywords here include the Digital Healthcare Act, electronic patient records, data donation, apps on prescription, etc. – and that it, therefore, seems more than worthwhile to actively position oneself in this field.
A formal WG meeting took place during the GMDS annual conference from September 6 – 11, 2020 in Berlin. Interested parties are cordially invited to come to Berlin and find out about the activities of the working group and get to know the members or other interested parties personally at the working group meeting. Membership of the GMDS is not a mandatory requirement for this; the working group is always happy to welcome new participants from different specialist areas and welcomes an interdisciplinary composition. If you have any questions or would like to find out more about the WG in person, please visit our website or send an e-mail to ag.chi@gmds.de.
