HoIP at WORLDCOMP'09 - The 2009 World Congress in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Applied Computing

Welcome to the First translational track on Healthcare over the Internet at WORLDCOMP 09. Research into healthcare services using the internet is typically fragmented into numerous specialized focused domains such as Security, Web Services and Bioinformatics which typically align to funding programmes and have their own dissemination channels. With 82 countries represented and 22 scientific conferences WORLDCOMP is uniquely positioned to host the first translational track on Healthcare over the Internet.

With the advent of the individually owned and controlled web-based Personal Health Record (Google Health, Microsoft Health Vault and NHS HealthSpace amongst others) new opportunities and challenges have been created for consumers, patients, clinical professionals, public and private sector health providers, insurers, industry, policy makers and the research community. Often taking advantage of technologies and services developed in other sectors we expect to see an ecosystem of products, services and networks developed around the Personal Health Record (PHR) that provide the individual with the ability to more effectively personalize and manage their own health experience

With its 22 conferences, WORLDCOMP provides a unique platform to promote translational research across a complimentary range of specialized research agendas including security and Management (SAM), Bioinformatics & computational Biology (BICOMP), Semantic Web & web services (SWWS) and Artificial Intelligence (ICAI). Each conference will host a HoIP session and all HoIP sessions will be clubbed together into a Healthcare over the Internet track.

HoIP - Health without Boundaries

Keynotes:

Brian D. Athey, Professor of Biomedical Informatics in the Departments of Psychiatry and Internal Medicine, and founding Associate Director of the Center for Computational Medicine and Biology, at the University of Michigan Medical School. Trained as a biophysicist, Athey is now recognized as one of the nations experts in the new field of Translational Bioinformatics. In the Mid-1980s, Brian proposed the double helical crossed-linker model for the structure of chromatin, once quite controversial, it is now generally accepted. Brian established the first nationwide Internet2 Visible Human Project demonstration under contract with the National Library of Medicine, was Principal Investigator of the DARPA Virtual Soldier Project, and he currently heads the NIH National Center for Integrative Biomedical Informatics (NCIBI.org), one of seven NIH Roadmap Centers for Biomedical Computing. Brian is Director of the Biomedical Informatics Program in the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research, and is national co-chair of the Clinical and Translational Sciences Award (CTSA) Informatics Key Function Committee (IKFC). He currently serves as a special advisor to the Director of the Division of Program Coordinator, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI), in the office of the Director of the NIH. In 2000, Brian was named a Peace Fellow of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS.org) for his work in the 1990s to combat biological warfare and terrorism.

SUBMISSION OF PAPERS:

Prospective authors are invited to submit their draft papers by uploading them to http://worldcomp.cviog.uga.edu/. Submissions must be received by Feb. 25, 2009 and they must be in either MS doc or pdf formats (about 5 to 7 pages - single space, font size of 10 to 12). All reasonable typesetting formats are acceptable (later, the authors of accepted papers will be asked to follow a particular typesetting format to prepare their papers for publication.)

The length of the Camera-Ready papers (if accepted) will be limited to 7 (IEEE style) pages. Papers must not have been previously published or currently submitted for publication elsewhere. The first page of the draft paper should include: title of the paper, name, affiliation, postal address, and email address for each author. The first page should also identify the name of the Contact Author and a maximum of 5 topical keywords that would best represent the content of the paper. Finally, the name of the conference that the paper is being submitted to must be stated on the first page.

Papers will be evaluated for originality, significance, clarity, impact, and soundness. Each paper will be refereed by two experts in the field who are independent of the conference program committee. The referees' evaluations will then be reviewed by two members of the program committee who will recommend a decision to the chair of the track that the paper has been submitted to. The chair will make the final decision. Lastly, the Camera-Ready papers will be reviewed by one member of the program committee.

IMPORTANT: To be part of this pioneering track when you submit your papers please use "HoIP - name-of-conference" as the subject of your email.

PROPOSAL FOR ORGANIZING HoIP SESSIONS/WORKSHOPS:

Each session will have at least 6 paper presentations from different authors (12 papers in the case of workshops). The session chairs will be responsible for all aspects of their sessions; including, soliciting papers, reviewing, selecting, ... The names of session chairs will appear as Associate Editors in the conference proceedings and on the cover of the books. Proposals to organize sessions should include the following information: name and address (+ email) of proposer, title of session, a 100-word description of the topic of the session, the name of the conference the session is submitted for consideration, and a short description on how the session will be advertised (in most cases, session proposers solicit papers from colleagues and researchers whose work is known to the session proposer). email your session proposal to Andy Marsh (am@hoip.eu). We would like to receive the proposals by January 16, 2009.