Jan. 21 - The HealthGrid U.S. Alliance is now accepting papers for the first International HealthGrid conference to be held in the United States, "Global HealthGrid: eScience Meets Biomedical Informatics.? The previous five annual conferences were held in Europe, as part of the e-Science framework program e-Health initiative.

 

"We're delighted that Chicago is host to the Sixth Annual International HealthGrid Conference June 2-4, 2008," says Jonathan Silverstein, M.D., President, HealthGrid.US, and Associate Director, Computation Institute, Argonne/University of Chicago. "This is a wonderful place to bring together the fast-growing community of global HealthGrid researchers and users, and the University of Chicago is pleased to be the local host for this important gathering."

 

Contributions can be made as full research papers -- up to 5,000 words, with applications that demonstrate Grid-based resources especially encouraged. Best papers will be selected for oral presentation at the annual conference. In addition, demonstrations and poster presentations will complement the scientific paper presentations. Criteria for presentation will be based on the content of the submitted papers, the originality of the contribution, technical quality, style and clarity of presentation, and importance to the field of advancing biomedical informatics and eScience. The submission deadline is February 8th, and online submission is available (http://papers.healthgrid.org/).

 

The HealthGrid conference is the premier conference on the transformation of biomedical research, education and medical care through the application of Grid technologies. HealthGrid is dedicated to enhancing biomedical research and healthcare delivery, creating an open collaborative virtual community, and communicating the collective knowledge of the HealthGrid. Conference details can be found at chicago2008.healthgrid.org.

 

"The HealthGrid community has been growing internationally for several years now," says Mary Kratz, Executive Vice President, HealthGrid.US, and Information Services Consultant to the University of Michigan Medical School Information Services. "It includes over 500 members from about 30 countries. The annual conference brings together diverse players to advance the use of grid technologies in health-related disciplines. Community members share the same vision, which is to nurture a community composed of researchers and scientists, clinicians and physicians, government agencies, and industry working together to transform today's biomedical workforce from research and healthcare to public health."