Technology is changing the way health care is delivered and providing answers to challenges such as an ageing population, public health threats such as pandemics and natural disasters, and healthcare access in developing countries.
 
The Australian School of Business will host the 2009 IEEE Healthcom Conference from 16 -18 December 2009 (www.healthcom2009.org) to examine these and other e-Health issues including research into new models for health care delivery, electronic game use for rehabilitation and next generation electronic health records.
 
Associate Professor Pradeep Ray, Director of the Asia-Pacific Ubiquitous Healthcare Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, said IEEE Healthcom2009 will be an important forum for discussions on e-Health projects sponsored by world bodies such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) - a UN body, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

“The main theme of the conference is eHealth for Ageing. This topic will be sponsored by the Australian Institute for Population Ageing Research at the Australian School of Business.

“The conference will also examine projects such as WHO Research on the Assessment of eHealth for Health Care Delivery and the Global Longitudinal Study on the Assessment of Mobile Wireless Technologies for Healthcare in Developing Countries,” said Associate Professor Ray, Chair of the Conference Organising Committee.
 
The conference will include keynote addresses by international experts in e-Health including Dr Ramesh S. Krishnamurthy from the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Adriana Velazquez, WHO Coordinator on diagnostic imaging, Dr Sikder Zakir, CEO of the Telemedicine Reference Centre, Bangladesh, Dr Jan Talmon, Maastricht University, Netherlands, and Professor Kendall Ho, University of British Columbia, Canada.
 
Professor Ho is a practising emergency medicine specialist and is founding Director, e-Health Strategy Office, University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine. He will discuss the use of information and communication technologies to accelerate the incorporation of latest health research into routine practice.
 
Dr Krishnamurthy’s area of focus is to assist governments in strengthening their public health information systems. He has worked on numerous Centre for Disease Control  informatics missions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Dr Talmon is Head of Medical Informatics at Maastricht University and Editor of the International Journal of Medical Informatics. He has led sustained research in the area of technology evaluation of IT in health care settings. 

Dr Velazquez and Dr Zakir will examine emerging issues and future promises from e-Health in developing countries, including Dr Zakir’s experience in using information technology to improve access to health information and services in Bangladesh and other developing countries in Asia and the Middle East.
 
Conference participants will include clinicians, hospital administrators, IT professionals, researchers, educators, healthcare solutions vendors and consultants.