Conference Link: http://www.healthinf.biostec.org/

Foreword: This book contains the proceedings of the International Conference on Health Informatics (HEALTHINF 2014). Co-organized by the ESEO Group, this conference is sponsored by the Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Control and Communication (INSTICC), in cooperation with the Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence (ACM Sigart), the Special Interest Group on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Biomedical Informatics (ACM SIGBio), the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), EUROMICRO and the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH). BIODEVICES is also technically co-sponsored by the European Society for Engineering and Medicine (ESEM), the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) and IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE EMBS). The purpose of the International Conference on Health Informatics is to bring together researchers and practitioners interested in the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) to healthcare and medicine in general and to the specialized support to persons with special needs in particular. Databases, networking, graphical interfaces, intelligent decision support systems and specialized programming languages are just a few of the technologies currently used in medical informatics. Mobility and ubiquity in healthcare systems, standardization of technologies and procedures, certification, privacy are some of the issues that medical informatics professionals and the ICT industry in general need to address in order to further promote ICT in healthcare. In the case of medical rehabilitation and assistive technology the use of ICT has had important results in the enhancement of the quality of life, contributing to a full integration of all citizens in the societies they are also part of. HEALTHINF is integrated in BIOSTEC (International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies) a conference composed by five complementary and co-located conferences, namely: - BIODEVICES - the International Conference on Biomedical Electronics and Devices; - BIOIMAGING - International Conference on Bioimaging; - BIOINFORMATICS - International Conference on Bioinformatics Models, Methods and Algorithms; - BIOSIGNALS - International Conference on Bio-inspired Systems and Signal Processing; - HEALTHINF - International Conference on Health Informatics. The HEALTHINF technical program includes a special session on Signals and Signs Understanding for Personalized Guidance to Promote Healthy Lifestyles – SUPERHEAL. The joint conference, BIOSTEC received 362 paper submissions from 59 countries, which demonstrates the success and global dimension of this conference. From these, 51 papers were published as full papers, 86 were accepted for short presentation and another 93 for poster presentation. These numbers, leading to a “full-paper” acceptance ratio of about 14% and an oral paper acceptance ratio close to 38%, show the intention of preserving a high quality forum for the next editions of this conference. BIOSTEC’s program includes a panel and five invited talks delivered by internationally distinguished speakers, namely: Mário Oliveira (Santa Marta Hospital, Portugal), Patrick Flandrin (ENS de Lyon, France), Paolo Dario (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Italy), Arcadi Navarro (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain) and Boudewijn Lelieveldt (Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands). The BIOSTEC program also includes a Doctoral Consortium on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies that brought together Ph.D. students within the biomedical field to discuss their research in an international forum. We would like to thank the Doctoral Consortium Chair, Roberto Longo, for his collaboration in providing this added-value to BIOSTEC. As in previous editions of the Conference, based on the reviewers’ evaluations and on the quality of presentations, a short list of authors will be selected and invited to submit extended revised versions of their papers for a book that will be published by Springer with the best papers of BIOSTEC 2014. We would like to express our thanks to all participants. First of all, to the authors, whose quality work is the essence of this conference. Next, we thank all the members of the program committee and the auxiliary reviewers for their diligence and expert reviewing. We would also like to deeply thank the invited speakers for their excellent contribution in sharing their knowledge and vision. Fourthly, we thank the HEALTHINF Program Co-chairs, Marta Bienkiewicz and Christine Verdier, whose collaboration was much appreciated. Finally, special thanks to all the members of the INSTICC team whose collaboration was fundamental for the success of this conference. We wish you all an inspiring conference and an unforgettable stay in Angers, Loire Valley, France and we hope to meet you again next year for HEALTHINF 2015, details of which will soon be available at http://www.healthinf.biostec.org. (More)

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