Images capturing global public health and development in action and the people served.

Baltimore, MD (September, 20 2012) – Announcing the 8th Annual 2012 Photoshare Photo Contest – a popular international event mobilizing amateur and professional photographers to share their photos for charitable and educational use. The contest has a top prize of $1,000 USD. Deadline for Entries: December, 17 2012.

Contest categories for photos include:
- Health Care Providers (*Featured Category: HIFA2015 Photography Award)
- Family Planning and Reproductive Health
- HIV/AIDS
- Malaria
- Environment
- Agricultural and Economic Development
- Democracy & Governance
- Humanitarian Assistance
- Global Health (open subject)
- Human Interest (open subject)

Photoshare’s 2012 Photo Contest features the HIFA2015 Photography Award, spotlighting the critical role of Healthcare Providers worldwide. The contest leverages HIFA2015 as a key partner to further expand Photoshare’s reach and impact among health professionals working to improve the availability and use of healthcare information in developing countries.

The contest will support the advancement of photography as a vital tool to communicate issues related to global public health and development. Entries are accepted through Photoshare’s Upload Photos submission form.

In addition to cash prizes awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners, participants submitting entries to the featured Healthcare Providers category, are also eligible for an additional cash prize, the HIFA2015 Photography Award. Contest winners will be evaluated based on topic relevancy and technical execution. Winning and finalist photos will be showcased on Photoshare and hosted on a number of other medium to high impact virtual venues.

The 2012 Photoshare Photo Contest is brought to you by the Knowledge for Health (K4Health) Project, a USAID funded project at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (JHU·CCP), in partnership with FHI360 and Management Sciences for Health (MSH). Sponsorship is provided by HIFA2015 (Healthcare Information For All by 2015), a global campaign administered by the Global Healthcare Information Network.

For more information about the contest, visit the 2012 Photoshare Photo Contest Announcement: http://www.photoshare.org/2012-photoshare-photo-contest

Learn more about Photoshare:
Photoshare – a service of the Knowledge for Health (K4Health) Project, helping nonprofits communicate global health and development issues through photography. By facilitating photo sharing among colleagues in international development, Photoshare has become a leading source for editorial development photography. The Photoshare collection, consisting primarily of photos taken by public health professionals in the field, contains 20,000 images illustrating the realities of urban and rural life in developing countries, as well as global efforts to improve and save lives. Photoshare is based at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs. For more information, visit: www.photoshare.org . Thousands of international health and development images free for nonprofit and educational use.

About HIFA2015:
HIFA2015 (Healthcare Information For All by 2015) is a global campaign and knowledge network administered by the Global Healthcare Information Network, a non-profit organisation working to improve the quality of health care in developing countries. We are committed to a common goal: By 2015, every person worldwide will have access to an informed health care provider. One-third of members are based in Africa, one-third in Europe, and one-third in the rest of the world. Together we are working for a future where people are no longer dying for lack of basic healthcare knowledge. We are more than 8,000 health workers, librarians, publishers, researchers and policymakers in more than 2000 organisations across 167 countries worldwide, and we interact on five global email discussion forums (HIFA Global Forums) in three languages:
1. HIFA2015
2. CHILD2015 in collaboration with the International Child Health Group of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the International Society of Social Paediatrics and Child Health
3. HIFA2015-Portuguese in collaboration with WHO, Geneva
4. HIFA-EVIPNet-French in collaboration with WHO, Geneva
5. HIFA-Zambia in collaboration with the Zambia UK Health Workforce Alliance
Over 160 leading health and development organisations worldwide have declared their commitment to the HIFA2015 goal.

The HIFA2015 Steering Group is delighted to announce 9 new HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations:

Academy of Family Physicians of India, Anadach Group (USA/Nigeria), Asia Pacific Association of Medical Journal Editors (Philippines), DIPEx (UK), International Medical Informatics Association (Switzerland), Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care (India), MEDICI (Medical Evidence, Decision Integrity, Clinical Impact) (Canada), MoMED (USA), Writers Hub (Pakistan).

1. Academy of Family Physicians of India

‘VISION: Transforming health care delivery in India through enhanced level of community based quality health care.
MISSION: Improve health status of communities by building up an environment of change and reform by promoting education / training of skilled primary care physicians and their integration in health care delivery system.’

2. Anadach Group

‘Anadach Group LLC is a global healthcare strategic consulting firm focusing on providing innovative advice and services to clients and partners interested in transforming healthcare systems in emerging markets and developing economies. The mission of Anadach is to dramatically improve access to quality healthcare services and products in emerging countries by enhancing the solutions to major challenges facing healthcare organizations.’

3. Asia Pacific Association of Medical Journal Editors
c/o World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific

‘APAME is a nongovernmental, nonpartisan and nonprofit organization that intends to support and promote medical journalism in the Asia Pacific Region by fostering networking, education, discussion and exchange of information and knowledge. The Association is closely affiliated with the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific… The vision of APAME is to promote health care through the dissemination of high-quality knowledge and information on medicine in the Asia Pacific Region.’

4. DIPEx

‘Healthtalkonline is the award-winning website of the DIPEx charity. Healthtalkonline and its sister website, Youthhealthtalk, let you share in more than 2,000 people’s experiences of over 60 health-related conditions and illnesses. You can watch video or listen to audio clips of the interviews, read about people’s experiences if you prefer and find reliable information about specific conditions, treatment choices and support.’

5. International Medical Informatics Association

‘The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) is the world body for health and biomedical informatics. As an ‘association of associations’, IMIA acts as a bridging organisation, bringing together the constituent organisations and their members. IMIA provides leadership and expertise to the multidisciplinary, health focused community and to policy makers, to enable the transformation of healthcare in accord with the world-wide vision of improving the health of the world population. Inherent in IMIA’s role is to bring together, from a global perspective, scientists, researchers, users, vendors, developers, consultants and suppliers in an environment of cooperation and sharing.’

6. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care

‘Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care seeks to foster academic communication and interdisciplinary research among primary care providers engaged in various forms. The journal covers broad spectrum of clinical topical catering to the academic needs of family physicians, urban GPs, rural physicians, NRHM doctors, community surgeons, community health workers, providers of community obstetrical & pediatric care, emergency physicians, occupational physicians and public health specialists.’

7. MEDICI (Medical Evidence, Decision Integrity, Clinical Impact)
c/o University Hospital, London, Ontario, Canada
Website under construction

8. MoMED

MoMED is a US non-profit organisation that connects clinicians to improve health outcomes in the developing world.

9. Writers Hub (Pakistan)

‘Writers Hub – Aiming to promote literature throughout Pakistan, polishing the beginners, producing the quality writers that meet the international standards. Our Stuff include the research articles and a discussion on them, the health issues, promotion of health and education throughout Pakistan especially its underprivileged areas. We become friends with the organizations which have goals aligning to our mission.’

160 organisations worldwide have now officially declared their commitment to the HIFA2015 goal.

If the goals of YOUR organisation align with the HIFA2015 goal, please join us!
- HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations are under no obligation to provide financial support
- HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations are promoted on HIFA2015 publications and website
- HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations are invited to present and discuss their work live with other HIFA2015 members in the HIFA2015 virtual conference room (please contact us if you are interested to explore options).

To date, 17 HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations have chosen to provide also a voluntary annual contribution to HIFA2015, ranging from £50 (75 US dollars) to £1000 ($1500 US dollars). These organisations are displayed on the HIFA2015 home page, and on every message that is sent on the HIFA2015 Forum.

Please download an application form from our home page.

Neil Pakenham-Walsh
Coordinator, HIFA2015
On behalf of the HIFA2015 Steering Group

The HIFA2015 Steering Group is delighted to announce five new HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations:

European Association of Science Editors
‘The European Association of Science Editors (EASE) is an internationally oriented community of individuals from diverse backgrounds, linguistic traditions and professional experience who share an interest in science communication and editing.’

International Journal of Medical Science and Public Health (India)
‘IJMSPH is an online open access, peer reviewed journal, originated as a platform for the scientific expression of the medical researchers , clinicians, public health experts or any other stake holder in the medical world.’

National Journal of Physiology, Pharmacy and Pharmacology (India)
‘National Journal of Physiology, Pharmacy and Pharmacology is a biannually peer reviewed journal. The journal is published by the association of physiologists, pharmacists and pharmacologists (APPP). The journal is having open access policy.’

Oeitiswa Cultural and Literary Community (Website under construction)
‘Oeitiswa Cultural and Literary Community is an organization constituted of medical students only, from Sylhet M A G Osmani Medical College, Sylhet, Bangladesh registered as an institutional organization by the administration of Sylhet M A G Osmani Medical College, Sylhet, Bangladesh to work with the student of this college to build better leadership in the field of health.’

Southern Philippines Medical Center Nurses Association Inc.
‘Southern Philippines Medical Center Nurses Association Inc. is a registered professional organization under the laws of the Republic of the Philippines. It facilitate and lead SPMC Nurses in the acquisition of knowledge, skills and right attitude in the practice of the nursing profession. ‘

151 organisations worldwide have now officially declared their commitment to the HIFA2015 goal.

If the goals of YOUR organisation align with the HIFA2015 goal, please join us!
- HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations are under no obligation to provide financial support
- HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations are promoted on HIFA2015 publications and website
- HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations are invited to present and discuss their work live with other HIFA2015 members in the HIFA2015 virtual conference room (please contact us if you are interested to explore options).

To date, 17 HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations have chosen to provide also a voluntary annual contribution to HIFA2015, ranging from £50 (75 US dollars) to £1000 ($1500 US dollars). These organisations are displayed on the HIFA2015 home page, and on every message that is sent on the HIFA2015 Forum.

To become a HIFA2015 Supporting Organisation, please download an application form from our home page.

Neil Pakenham-Walsh
Coordinator, HIFA2015
On behalf of the HIFA2015 Steering Group

Healthcare Information For All by 2015 (www.hifa2015.org) is pleased to make available a Press Release from Knowledge for Health (K4Health) regarding a Special Issue of the Journal of Health Communication, guest edited by Tara Sullivan, Neil Pakenham-Walsh and Symphrose Ouma. This is a collaboration between the Knowledge For Health Project at Johns Hopkins University, HIFA2015, and the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa. The full text of the special issue is freely available here.

‘Taken together, the pieces in this special issue form a picture of how actors at different levels of the health system can work together to meet the information needs of all health care professionals.’ (Tara M. Sullivan, Sarah V. Harlan, Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Symphrose Ouma)

Press Release: THE KNOWLEDGE FOR HEALTH (K4HEALTH) PROJECT ANNOUNCES “MEETING THE INFORMATION NEEDS OF HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS, PROGRAM MANAGERS, AND POLICY MAKERS IN LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES”, A SPECIAL ISSUE OF THE JOURNAL OF HEALTH COMMUNICATION

For immediate release

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

BALTIMORE, MD – K4Health announces the publication of “Meeting the Information Needs of Health Care Providers, Program Managers and Policy Makers in Low- and Middle-Income Countries”, a special supplement to the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives.

K4Healths Knowledge Management Director Tara Sullivan guest edited the supplement, along with Neil Pakenham-Walsh, coordinator of Healthcare Information for All by 2015 (HIFA2015) and co-director of the Global Healthcare Information Network; and Symphrose Ouma, Chair of the Kenya Chapter of the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA).

Sullivan explained: “This special issues draws attention to a critical health issue: the need for accurate and relevant information to inform decision-making and improve health service quality. Lack of information or outdated information can have detrimental consequences for health care consumers – it can literally mean the difference between life and death or sickness and health.”

This special issue addresses meeting the health information needs of health professionals, and shares findings from qualitative studies conducted in India, Malawi, and Senegal. Each study explores what information is most relevant and useful for providers, program managers, and policy makers and how to bridge gaps in health information access.

The supplement also includes commentaries that explore issues surrounding opportunities and barriers to access and use of information from three different perspectives: health care providers, library services, and donors.

The special supplement is provided free of charge via open access courtesy of the K4Health project, and is available at the journal website: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/uhcm20/17/sup2

-The Knowledge for Health (K4Health) Project is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Population and Reproductive Health (PRH), within its Bureau for Global Health. K4Health is led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Healths Center for Communication Programs (JHUCCP), in partnership with FHI 360 and Management Sciences for Health (MSH). While the current iteration of the project began in 2008, we are the inheritors of a rich store of expertise and resources from predecessor projects going back nearly 40 years. K4Health works to improve access to and sharing of global, regional, and country-specific public health knowledge, particularly about family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH). Since FP/RH issues do not exist in a vacuum, we also share information about related public health issues (such as HIV/AIDS and maternal and child health). www.k4health.org

-The HIFA2015 campaign was launched in Mombasa, Kenya in October 2006, at the 10th Congress of the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa. Our shared goal is: By 2015, every person worldwide will have access to an informed healthcare provider. People will no longer be dying for lack of knowledge. www.hifa2015.org

-The Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA) is a leader in promoting access and use of health information in Africa. www.ahila.org

###

For convenience, the article titles and their individual links are provided below.

Empowering People and Organizations through Information
Najeeb Al-Shorbaji

Working Together to Meet the Information Needs of Health Care Providers, Program Managers, and Policy Makers in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Tara M. Sullivan, Sarah V. Harlan, Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Symphrose Ouma

Towards a Collective Understanding of the Information Needs of Health Care Providers in Low-Income Countries, and How to Meet Them
Neil Pakenham-Walsh

Enhancing Access to Health Information in Africa: A Librarian’s Perspective
Nasra Gathoni

Meeting the Health Information Needs of Health Workers: What Have We Learned?
Margaret D’Adamo, Madeleine Short Fabic & Saori Ohkubo

Understanding Health Information Needs and Gaps in the Health Care System in Uttar Pradesh, India
Nandita Kapadia-Kundu, Tara M. Sullivan, Basil Safia, Geetali Trivedia & Sanjanthi Velua

Qualitative Study of Health Information Needs, Flow, and Use in Senegal
Amadou Hassane Syll, Elizabeth T. Robinson, Laura Raney & Karim Seckd

Building a National Model for Knowledge Exchange in Malawi: Findings From a Health Information Needs Assessment
Nancy Vollmer LeMay & Piers J. W. Bocock

The HIFA2015 Steering Group is delighted to announce 9 new HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations: Blue Torch Home Care (Nigeria), Nepal Pharmacy Students’ Society, Nepal Public Health Network, PanAfrican Medical Journal (Kenya), People’s Health Movement Nepal Students’ Circle, Riders for Health (UK), Rural Women Centre for Education and Development (Cameroon), Shohratgarh Environmental Society (India), and Swinfen Charitable Trust (UK).

Blue Torch Home Care (Nigeria)
‘Blue torch Home Care Ltd is a non-governmental organization, established with the sole aim of taking nursing care to the homes of all categories of patients and clients ranging from discharged patients to self-cared patients.’

Nepal Pharmacy Students’ Society
‘Nepal Pharmacy Students’ Society(NPSS) is an autonomous,non-profit and non-political pharmacy students’ society of Tribhuvan University(the largest government university),established in 2002 with the aim of developing academics through the active leadership and co-ordination amongst the pharmacy students.’

Nepal Public Health Network
‘Nepal Public Health Network (NPHN), is an organization of students and professionals in public health and related disciplines around the world engaged in raising awareness about public health issues faced by people in Nepal. We seek to support these students and professionals in developing their competencies and honing their skills by working towards community-centered, universal and widespread health care services in the country as well as provide input in the process of public health policy and program development, implementation and evaluation to improve the health status of the people of Nepal.’
Contact:

PanAfrican Medical Journal (Kenya)
‘The PAMJ is in electronic format only (no paper version), therefore, articles can be made available in a very short time. We are committed in maintaining high quality of scientific articles trough serious, accurate but fast peer-review process. We believe that scientific work done in Africa should be rapidly and freely made available to all researchers worldwide, while authors should retain the intellectual property of the articles they send to the journal. Vision: To be the leading medical journal in Africa and one of the best in the world.’

People’s Health Movement Nepal Students’ Circle
‘Peoples Health Movement Nepal Students Circle is a group of dynamic and energetic young minds sensitized by historic people’s health movement to raise voice for peoples’ right to equitable and quality health for now and forwarding solutions to address it at regional, national and international level. It is affiliated to national PHM Nepal Circle and Global PHM Secretariat.’

Riders for Health (UK)
‘Riders is an award-winning social enterprise. We are working to make sure all health workers in Africa have access to reliable transportation so they can reach the most isolated people with regular and predictable health care.’

Rural Women Centre for Education and Development (Cameroon) (Website under construction)
Rural Women Centre for Education and Development has sponsored reproductive health education programs for rural girls both in and out of primary school, introducing these girls to the use of Sanitary napkins and distributing it to them, giving school material and small scholarship assistance to them, providing reading lamps and kerosine for children, giving transport assistance for rural women with HIV/AIDS to access their medications, helping widows from matrilinear succession to rent land and give them seed money for farming etc.

Shohratgarh Environmental Society (India)
‘Shohratgarh Envirnomnetal Society (SES) is a development organization.SES was informally born with issue of local safe drinking water issue in 1985. Over the years, SES has evolved to be a comprehensive NGO which works in the field of agriculture, food security, livelihood, health, education, disaster mitigation, water &environment.’

Swinfen Charitable Trust (UK)
‘The Swinfen Charitable Trust was set up in 1998, with the aim of assisting poor, sick and disabled people in the developing world. The Trust’s policy is to do this by establishing telemedicine links between medical practitioners in the developing world and expert medical and surgical specialists who generously give free advice via the Internet’

146 organisations worldwide have now officially declared their commitment to the HIFA2015 goal.

If the goals of YOUR organisation align with the HIFA2015 goal, please join us!
- HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations are under no obligation to provide financial support
- HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations are promoted on HIFA2015 publications and website
- HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations are invited to present and discuss their work live with other HIFA2015 members in the HIFA2015 virtual conference room (please contact us if you are interested to explore options).

To date, 17 HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations have chosen to provide also a voluntary annual contribution to HIFA2015, ranging from £50 (75 US dollars) to £1000 ($1500 US dollars). These organisations are displayed on the HIFA2015 home page, and on every message that is sent on the HIFA2015 Forum.

Please download an application form from our home page.

Neil Pakenham-Walsh
Coordinator, HIFA2015
On behalf of the HIFA2015 Steering Group

The HIFA2015 Steering Group is delighted to announce the ratification of four new HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations: Gbulung Community Library Service (Ghana), Health Education Library for People (India), Humanitarian Centre (UK). and Irise (UK).

Gbulung Community Library Service (Ghana)
Gbulung Community Library Service (GCLS) serves the needs of the Tolon/Kumbugu District in the northern region of the Republic of Ghana and serves a total population of 122,550 covering an area of about 2,741 square kilometers with 38 communities.

Health Education Library for People (India)
Health Education Library for People is India’s largest patient education center housing more than 11,000 authentic books on possibly every aspect of health and diseases, along with pamphlets, health care magazines, and an exhaustive audiovisual section too.

Humanitarian Centre (UK)
The Humanitarian Centre is an international development network affiliated with the University of Cambridge. We bring together NGOs, researchers, entrepreneurs, academics, business leaders, students and consultants working to reduce global poverty. The Humanitarian Centre exists to facilitate cross-sector and cross-disciplinary partnerships, share best practice, and promote dialogue and learning. We can support the HIFA2015 goal, by strategically connecting individuals and organizations working to address health inequalities and larger structural inequalities that impact access to health care in ways that promote more effective development.

Irise (UK)
Irise was set up with the aim of contributing to the empowerment and education of girls and young women in East Africa so that they will have a voice that cannot be ignored and the ability to work towards solutions to the problems they face. It is run by students and graduates from the University of Sheffield, UK, with support from Sheffield School of Health and Related Research and from many other individuals. Specifically, Irise works to address the problem of menstrual hygiene management which causes many school girls around the world to miss school or use unhygienic alternatives. Irise aims to bring together the research and information on different approaches to the problem in our online library as well as conducting our own research and evaluations.

137 organisations worldwide have now officially declared their commitment to the HIFA2015 goal.

If the goals of YOUR organisation align with the HIFA2015 goal, please join us!
- HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations are under no obligation to provide financial support
- HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations are promoted on HIFA2015 publications and website
- HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations are invited to present and discuss their work live with other HIFA2015 members in the HIFA2015 virtual conference room (please contact us if you are interested to explore options).

To date, 17 HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations have chosen to provide also a voluntary annual contribution to HIFA2015, ranging from £50 (75 US dollars) to £1000 ($1500 US dollars). These organisations are displayed on the HIFA2015 home page.

Download an application form from our home page.

Neil Pakenham-Walsh
Coordinator, HIFA2015
On behalf of the HIFA2015 Steering Group

http://www.hifa2015.org/about/administration/

The HIFA2015 Steering Group is delighted to announce the ratification of five new HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations: BioMedical Student Research Initiatives (India), Clinical CURRENT (UK), IFMSA-Palestine, Indian Medical Students Association, Medical Students’ Foundation Pakistan.

1. BioMedical Student Research Initiatives (India)

‘We’re a team of medical students who strive to bring the much needed awareness and appreciation for research work to Eastern India.’

2. Clinical CURRENT (UK)

‘Clinical CURRENT is an online platform for medical professionals, clinical researchers and related students to share information, knowledge and expertise. It also provides a central point of access to thousands of medical journals and we are adding new content sources all the time. The site will be free to use and available in all countries when it launches.’

3. IFMSA-Palestine

‘IFMSA-Palestine is the Palestinian medical students association, the Palestinian branch of the IFMSA (International Federation of Medical Students Association), we are a network of motivated medical & healthcare students active in curriculum issues, community projects,international exchanges, campaigns & conferences we help students to raise awareness of and take action on humanitarian and global health issues & to work and to think globally with our colleagues all over the world, having more experiences inside and outside Palestine, with local and international projects targeted to our society.’

4. Indian Medical Students Association

‘India today is home to about 260 medical colleges that churn out about 30,000 undergraduate students a year. At any given time, there are a total of about 100,000 undergraduate medical students in India. An urgent need is felt to establish a be-all-and-end-all umbrella organization for all medical students in India. Hence, we come forward with the establishment of the Indian Medical Students’ Association. Our Mission: “To endow a common platform for representation to all the Medical Students of the Nation irrespective of the University they study in, grades, age, sex, caste, and region they belong to.”‘

5. Medical Students’ Foundation Pakistan

‘It is non-political, non-profit volunteer organization founded by graduates of Dow medical college (DUHS) Karachi for the Electives /Rotations benefit of medical students all over the world specially Pakistan. Aims and objectives of this foundation are to provide medical students a platform where they can find everything they need and provide them awareness about their career options so that they can decide career of their choice, get needed information about research to start their own and can join and work with people who have research experience and benefit medical sciences. They can get information news and updates about electives, scholarships, local & international conferences and find good resource of medical knowledge to help in their studies. They can read about and meet medical students who have done something outstanding to get inspiration, can read clinical cases to improve their clinical knowledge. This platform is complete resource centre for medical students and we hope every one will find it useful.’

133 organisations worldwide have now officially declared their commitment to the HIFA2015 goal.

If the goals of YOUR organisation align with the HIFA2015 goal, please join us!
- HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations are under no obligation to provide financial support
- HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations are promoted on HIFA2015 publications and website
- HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations are invited to present and discuss their work live with other HIFA2015 members in the HIFA2015 virtual conference room (please contact us if you are interested to explore options).

To date, 14 HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations have chosen to provide also a voluntary annual contribution to HIFA2015, ranging from £50 (75 US dollars) to £1000 ($1500 US dollars). These organisations are displayed on the HIFA2015 home page.

Download an application form from our home page.

Neil Pakenham-Walsh
Coordinator, HIFA2015
On behalf of the HIFA2015 Steering Group

http://www.hifa2015.org/about/administration/

We are delighted to announce 14 HIFA2015 Financial Supporting Organisations for 2012:

Chartered Society of Physiotherapists
Commonwealth Nurses Federation
European Association of Senior Hospital Physicians
European Federation of Salaried Doctors
Global Health Media Project
Haiti Nursing Foundation
International Clinical Epidemiology Network
Joanna Briggs Institute
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Network for Information and Digital Access
Partnerships in Health Information
Public Library of Science
Royal College of Midwives
UnitedHealth Chronic Disease Initiative.

In total, the above organisations have contributed £4,650 (approx 7,500 US dollars). Their contributions range from £50 (75 US dollars) to £1,000 (1,500 US dollars). This is in addition to £10,000 from the British Medical Association, our main funder.

We have added the names and logos of the above organisations to the bottom of the HIFA2015 home page: www.hifa2015.org

Other HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations are currently considering the possibility of a financial contribution and we hope to make a second announcement soon. There are more than 130 HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations in total. (HIFA2015 Supporting Organisations have officially declared their support for the HIFA2015 goal. HIFA2015 Financial Supporting Organisations have, in addition, provided a financial contribution for 2012.)

Looking at our long-term financial requirements, we have always known that implementation of the HIFA2015 Strategy in full would require three full-time staff.

To date, we have been able to raise sufficient funds for one staff person only (Neil PW, Coordinator). The HIFA2015 Strategy has therefore been only partly implemented. We continue to explore other sources of funding so that we can implement the HIFA2015 Strategy in full, and we shall keep you updated on progress.

Thank you to everyone for your continuing support and special thanks to our HIFA2015 Financial Supporting Organisations for 2012.

Neil Pakenham-Walsh, HIFA2015 Coordinator
On behalf of the HIFA2015 Steering Group

HIFA2015 Supporting Organisation Translators Without Borders and Wikipedia’s Wikiproject Medicine have announced a partnership to improve the free global access to high quality health information. James Heilman, from Wikipedia, said: “I would like to thank HIFA2015 for bringing myself from Wikipedia and Lori Thicke from Translators Without Borders together. This has led to an exciting new collaboration to improve free global access to high quality health information.”

The text below is reproduced from the announcement circulated on the HIFA2015 forum.

Wikipedia, as many are aware, is one of the foremost health care information resources. It is freely usable by all people globally and can be re-purposed or changed for other uses as long as Wikipedia is acknowledged and the resulting product is released under a license that allows the same. Wikipedia’s 26,000 medical articles receive approximately 150-200 million page views a month in English alone with some content available in over 280 other languages. The top 300 medical articles receive more than 100,000 page views a month and it is used extensively by both health care providers and the lay public with between 50-70% of physicians using it in clinical practice.

Availability of high quality content is however limited in many languages. Even in English less than 1% of articles have passed a semi formal peer review process. Our efforts are attempting to both improve the English content and translation articles on humankind’s 80 most important health care conditions to as many other languages as possible (including simple English). This will be for many people the first time high quality health information becomes available in their own language. We are looking for people to both help us at Wikipedia improve articles in English and people to help Translators Without Borders do translation. We are also needing people with both language abilities and the ability or desire to learn how to edit Wikipedia to integrate the translated material back in the Wikipedia edition in question. This project is just beginning and we are planning on caring it out over the next three to five years. If you wish further details or want to become involved feel free to contact me either via email or on my Wikipedia talk page.

James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
“Wikipedia, Come Write Where it Matters”

HIFA2015 profile: James Heilman is a Wikipedian and Board Member of Wikimedia Canada (the Canadian Chapter of Wikimedia). He is an Emergency Room Physician in Cranbrook, British Columbia, a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Saskatchewan and a Clinical Instructor at the University of British Columbia. jmh649 AT gmail.com

We are delighted to announce the award of HIFA2015 Country Representative of the Year 2011 to Princess Uju E. Nwafor-Orizu, Nigeria, in recognition of her outstanding achievements.

Princess Uju Nwafor-Orizu is Medical Librarian at the Medical Library, College of Health Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nnewi, Anambra State, Nigeria. She has enrolled more than _200_ new HIFA members in Nigeria. Amazing!

It is largely thanks to the efforts of Princess Nwafor-Orizu and other HIFA2015 Country Representatives that we have such a high representation of members in Africa, South Asia and other regions. We now have 41 HIFA2015 Country Representatives in 24 countries:

http://www.hifa2015.org/support/hifa2015-country-representatives/

Princess – we thank you for your magnificent support and we look forward to continue working with you in 2012.

Here’s to Healthcare Information For All by 2015!

Neil Pakenham-Walsh
Coordinator, HIFA2015