ICMCCA Conference of Conferences on ICT in Medicine and CareEndorsed by the European Union, the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE), and the Dutch Ministries of Health and Economics, the first International Congress on Medicine and Care Compunetics (www.icmcc.com) was held in Hague, The Netherlands, from June 2-4, 2004. New and innovative in its format, the Congress is an off-shoot of ideas that were put together in April 2003 to emphasize the computing and networking synergies in medicine and care. The term Compunetics was coined to represent the union of the latter. Contrary to the traditional sessions-oriented conferences, ICMCC represented a meeting created around a cluster of special workshops in closely related areas of compunetics. The Call for Workshops resulted in 18 workshops of either half a day or a full day. People from all over the world including Europe, USA, South America, and Israel participated in the workshops. Conference participants came from 26 different countries, as far away as Taiwan and Australia. During the plenary session, after the opening by the event chair Lodewijk Bos, Prof. Swamy Laxminarayan gave a very enlightening overview on Health Informatics. On behalf of the IFMBE president Prof. Joachim Nagel, secretary general Prof. Ratko Magjarevic gave a very inspiring speech on how we should try to look at the problems in developing countries and how ICT can be of help. Harald Reiter of Philips gave a very exciting illustration of one of their main projects, the MyHeart project, showing some very tantalizing examples of the development of medical wearables. Finally Dr. Phil Candy of the National Health Service University in the UK dealt with aspects of eLearning as a tool in the development of a new approach in Healthcare, titled "eLearn, Towards a Model of Online Learning". During the three days of the program, the workshops presented state-of-the-art material on various research and best-practice projects on medical and care compunetics, fulfilling our goal to cover the medical and care fields as broadly as possible. There were some important workshops on various aspects of imaging (Image based CFD, organized by A. Anayiotos, Univ. of Alabama Birmingham and X. Xu, Imperial college, London; Diagnostics and Virtual Training in Vascular Diseases, organized by J. Reiber, Leiden Univ. Med. Center and A. Hoekstra, Univ. of Amsterdam); there were workshops on monitoring and treatment of elderly and long term patients (Telehomecare and Monitoring, organized by M. Clarke, Brunel University; The Cognitive Cube, Evaluation, Staging, Care and Rehabilitation IT Methodology for Cognitive Impairments in the elderly, organized by A. Xavier of the Univ. of Sao Paulo; The Use of Information and Communication Technology for Treatment and Monitoring of Chronic Disabled Persons at Home, organized by M. Vollenbroek, Roessingh R&D). The Cognitive Cube workshop marked the starting point of a virtual institute for the treatment of Alzheimer patients in Brasil. There was a very interesting workshop on bioavailability (Bioavailability and Bioequivalence Trials: Statistics & Pharmacokinetic Principles, organized by R. Lakshminarayan, St. Petersburg College, Florida and S. Roy, Novartis, USA) but also the influence of ICT on autism treatment and research was dealt with (Information Technology and Behavioral Medicine: Impact on Autism Treatment & Research, organized by R. Oberleitner, e-Merge Med. Techn. and S. Laxminarayan, Idaho State Univ.). The not so distant future was looked at dealing with the implementation of 4G mobile technology (The Challenges in the Migration to 4G Mobile System; M-Health Prospective, organized by R. Istepanian, Kingston Univ. and S. Laxminarayan, Idaho State Univ.), but also when looking at the consequences of the broadened EU internal market (eHealth and the Internal Market, organized by EHTEL) and the sharing of health information in the 21st century (organized by B. Stanberry, Avienda). In a different way the workshop on Rural Health Care Delivery (The Economics of Rural Health Care Delivery: Methods and Models from Europe and the United States, organized by M. Piland, the Colorado Health Institute) dealt with aspects of the recent enlarging of the European Union. This workshop also showed us how the EU might profit from the experiences in the United States, as did the exciting workshop on disease surveillance (Information and Technology by 2010 to Support Disease Detection/Early Warning, Reporting, Investigation and Event Management, organized by M. Popovich, STC). A large working group workshop on Electronic Health Record Security (organized by B. Blobel, Magdeburg Univ, HL7) dealt with its various aspects, such as standards, architecture and the use of cards. A more general view on healthcare related subjects was given in a workshop on communication (Communication and ICT in Healthcare: Theory and Practice, organized by P. Toussaint, Leiden Univ., Med. Center), as well as in a workshop on innovation in the Dutch healthcare system (Good Healthcare Innovation Practice, organized by E. Kalter, Dutch Healthcare Insurance Council). The European Commission allowed ICMCC to offer the eHealth projects they supported, an opportunity to present their results and we are proud to have 13 of those projects in our program, covering a wide range of subjects, from skin cancer detection (Early Detection of Skin Cancer (EDISCIM) through the Use of Non-Invasive Confocal Imaging, organized by S. Percy, Visitech) to emergency medicine (EC eHealth projects, for details see www.icmcc.com) A call for workshops was sent out for this event and realizing that this new concept might leave some very interesting elements out of the picture, it was decided to have one workshop dedicated to solutions in healthcare dealing with a very large variety of subjects, from headaches to asthma, from hypertension to micro surgery, and from reducing medical errors to avoiding digital divide between the EU and the Mediterranean world through telemedicine. In total 17 papers were produced. (Patient Centered (health) Care Solutions, for more details see www.icmcc.com). The proceedings (472 pages) were published at the first day of the Event by IOS Press: "Medical and Care Compunetics 1", in: Studies in Health Technology and Informatics nr. 103. IOS Press, ISBN 1-58603-431-6. In offering this wide range of subjects under one roof and during one event, ICMCC has already become a remarkable and innovative event in the world of medical and care ICT. It was a rewarding event for all those involved and I want to thank all the people who presented papers or workshops and all the members of the recently established boards. The next ICMCC Event will be organized at the same excellent venue from June 1-3, 2005.
Lodewijk Bos
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