Developing the Knowledge Base for Health Informatics: From the Otley Think-tank to the IMIA Strategic Plan

The original aims of the Otley (UK) 'Education Steps' think-tank meeting were to explore the evidence base for and theoretical constructs underpinning health informatics. From these, the aim was to identify and explore the educational issues and implications, including the need for, and so content of, different levels of education in health informatics. This work has become part of a larger research project that is being jointly funded by the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) and the British Computer Society Health Informatics Forum (BCSHIF). This paper explores the methods used, and the initial results, from the first two phases of the project. The research process used in the 2005 Otley think tank workshop (Phase 1) are explored in detail, and illustrative examples of the outcomes are provided. The methods being used in Phase 2 are discussed, together with plans for validation of the outputs by the wider international community. The outputs of the project will now help to define the knowledge core at the centre of IMIA's Strategic Plan.