BETHESDA, MD – AMIA, the U.S.-based association for informatics professionals, has launched a nonprofit, wholly owned subsidiary called the Global Health Informatics Partnership (GHIP) to serve as an international center for collaborative initiatives on health informatics.

Informatics is the science of how to use data, information, and knowledge to improve both human health and the delivery of healthcare services, usually supported by health IT systems.

GHIP (gee-hip), aims to build grassroots networks of health informatics advocates and professionals that will result in strengthened health informatics capacity in low-resource settings, primarily in South America, Africa, and Asia.

All GHIP activities will conform to open standards, open content, and open-access principles and practices, and are guided by established informatics principles, AMIA officials said.

Long career in public health

Robert Mayes will serve as executive director of GHIP. Mayes previously served as a senior adviser on health information technology issues at the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Health Information Technology Program, where he was responsible for the development and implementation of research on health IT and its role in improving quality and safety. His recent work focused on mobile technologies and the role of social networks in health care.

"During his long career in the U.S. Public Health Service, Bob Mayes developed expertise working on a wide variety of health informatics topics," said AMIA President and CEO Edward H. Shortliffe, MD. "Bob's experience – working in underserved areas, as senior health informatics adviser to the CDC Global AIDS Program and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and as an onsite expert providing technical assistance to Health Ministries during his six-plus years living in Africa – has resulted in his eminent knowledge and visionary stance on global health informatics."

Mayes is also a registered nurse with clinical experience in both acute care and community nursing. He holds degrees in anthropology, nursing, and nursing informatics.

GHIP aims to enable the global community of health informatics professionals and practitioners to share expertise in health information systems and tools, informatics competencies, and capacity-building and to establish local and regional communities of practice in which experience and knowledge can be leveraged to benefit patients and the healthcare work force in low-resource settings.

GHIP is already involved with global health leaders, including Health Metrics Network, a partnership hosted by the World Health Organization; International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA); IntraHealth International; Millennium Villages Project, Earth Institute, Columbia University; Regenstrief Institute, Inc. (at Indiana University School of Medicine); OER Africa (an initiative of South Africa Institute for Distance Education); and OpenMRS.

Bound for Cape Town

Mayes will lead the newly formed GHIP team to Cape Town, South Africa, in mid-September, where they will introduce a group of prototypes called HIBBs, Health Informatics Building Blocks; informatics training modules designed for community health workers in low-resource clinical settings.

"An abundance of GHIP's work will be carried out through its portal, www.ghip.net," said Mayes. "GHIP's knowledge-transfer activities will underpin its multiple roles as a health informatics information resource center, a coordinator and developer of health informatics training media, a facilitator in accessing health informatics experts and human resources, as well as a collaborative ecosystem that focuses on problem-solving in real-world healthcare and health delivery settings."

A list of GHIP's board of directors is on the next page.