The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), at its 2001 General Assembly, held in London, UK, approved the establishment of a Medical Informatics Award of Excellence. The Award is currently made every three years, in conjunction with a MedInfo Year. The winner of the award gives an Award Lecture at a plenary session at Medinfo, the World Congress of Health and Medical Informatics.
The recipient of this Medical Informatics Award of Excellence is an individual whose personal commitment and dedication to medical informatics has made a lasting contribution to medicine and healthcare through her or his achievements in research, education, development or application in the field of medical informatics.
The first and second awards were jointly given by IMIA and UMIT, the University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology at Innsbruck/Hall, Austria. The first two awards consisted of a diploma and a prize amount of €4,000 (Euro). The diploma contains the mission statements of IMIA and UMIT.
Prof. François Grémy - First Recipient
The first IMIA/UMIT Medical Informatics Award of Excellence was given in 2004 during a ceremony at MedInfo 2004 in San Francisco CA, USA. The recipient was selected by a Nominating Committee consisting of two members nominated by IMIA - IMIA President Prof. KC Lun, Singapore, and IMIA Vice-President for MedInfos, Prof. Patrice Degoulet, Paris - and two members nominated by UMIT - UMIT Rector Prof. Reinhold Haux, Innsbruck, and Prof. Casimir Kulikowski, New Brunswick, Adjunct Faculty of UMIT - (positions as during the time of nomination, they have now partially changed).
The Nomination Committee unanimously selected Prof. François Grémy, Uzes, France, one of the founders of IMIA and an outstanding pioneer of the field of medical informatics. The award celebration took place on September 11, 2004 at MedInfo 2004 in San Francisco, CA culminating with Prof. Grémy’s Medical Informatics Award of Excellence Lecture, entitled “Hardware, Software, Peopleware, Subjectivity: A Philosophical Promenade“ which was published jointly with other papers on his work in one of the 2005 issues of Methods of Information in Medicine.
Prof. Jan van Bemmel - Second Recipient
The second IMIA/UMIT Medical Informatics Award of Excellence was given in 2007 during a ceremony at MedInfo 2007 in Brisbane, Australia. The recipient was selected by a Nominating Committee consisting of two members nominated by IMIA - IMIA President Dr. Nancy Lorenzi, Nashville, and IMIA Vice-President for MedInfos, Dr Antoine Geissbuhler, Geneva - and two members nominated by UMIT - Dr Elske Ammenwerth and Dr. Silvia Miksch.
The Nomination Committee unanimously selected Prof. Jan van Bemmel, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, who served as IMIA President for 2001-2004, and has been an outstanding pioneer of the field of medical informatics. The award celebration took place on August 24, 2007 at MedInfo 2007 in Brisbane, Australia, culminating with Prof. van Bemmel’s Medical Informatics Award of Excellence Lecture, entitled “Reflections on Curiosity“ which was published in the 2008 IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics.
Third IMIA Medical Informatics Award of Excellence
The third Medical Informatics Award of Excellence was made at Medinfo 2010 in Cape Town, South Africa in September, 2010. The award is now purely an IMIA award, and the Nominating Committee comprises IMIA President Prof. Reinhold Haux, IMIA Vice President Dr Fernando Martin-Sanchez, APAMI Past President Prof. Yu-Chuan (Jack) Li and IMIA North America representative, Dr. David Bates.
The Nomination Committee unanimously selected two joint recipients of the 2010 Award - Marion Ball and Hans Peterson.
The IMIA/UMIT Medical Informatics Award of Excellence Diploma
