Accreditation and Certification in Europe on Biomedical and Health Informatics as provided by EFMI

The AC2 Committee was funded by EFMI (European Federation for Medical Informatics) in order to create and suitably modify a database of educational programs across Europe since study programs in the vast fields of Biomedical and Health Informatics, Medical Informatics and Health Technology is continuously growing during the recent years. This initiative aims at the creation of an on-line catalogue that would provide information about European programs and courses in Biomedical and Health Informatics in order to support the promotion and provision awareness of the educational initiative to the wider biomedical and health informatics community in Europe and worldwide. A great variety of curricula with specialization in Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI), Medical Informatics, Medical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at European Universities are offered at any academic level. For this reason, the AC2 Accreditation and Certification initiative is supported by EFMI to find and present all necessary elements in appropriate way in order to implement the Accreditation and Certification process on education in biomedical informatics, health informatics, medical informatics and the other related fields in Europe

International Recommendations on Education in Biomedical and Health Informatics – An Overview

The educational recommendations aim is to provide a tool for academic program evaluators to compare and accredit the quality of delivered programs; support educators in developing BMHI (Biomedical and Health Informatics) curricula at various educational levels; identify essential skills and competencies for healthcare professionals and those working in the field of BMHI certification; and encourage institutions, organizations, and health authorities to recognize the need for establishing and further developing BMHI educational programs. A brief presentation outlining the most recent updated version of the recommendations—which are offered for courses and course tracks in BMHI as part of educational programs in biomedical and health sciences, health information management, and informatics/computer science, as well as for dedicated programs in BMHI (leading to bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degrees)—follows a brief history of the IMIA Educational activities and its support in developing the recommendations. The six domain areas of BMHI fundamental principles, health sciences and services, computer, data, and information sciences, social and behavioral sciences, management science, and BMHI specialization are used to characterize the educational requirements for the roles of BMHI user, BMHI generalist, and BMHI specialist. Additionally, suggestions are made for doctorate, master's, and bachelor's degree-level BMHI-focused educational programs. These are the BMHI's main academic offerings. Furthermore, suggestions for protocols related to certification, accreditation, and continuing education are given. The IMIA recommendations center on the educational needs for the healthcare workforce, computer scientists, and decision makers to acquire BMHI knowledge and skills at various levels. These recommendations reflect societal changes related to globalization, digitalization, and digital transformation in general and in healthcare specifically. Finally, a brief explanation of the accrediting quality control procedure will be provided

How to solve Quantum Optimal Control Problems using Projection Operator-based Newton Steps

The Quantum PRojection Operator-based Newton method for Trajectory Optimization, a.k.a. Q-PRONTO, is a numerical method for solving quantum optimal control problems. This paper significantly improves prior versions of the quantum projection operator by introducing a regulator that stabilizes the solution estimate at every iteration. This modification is shown to not only improve the convergence rate of the algorithm, but also steer the solver towards better local minima compared to the un-regulated case. Numerical examples showcase Q-PRONTO can be used to solve multi-input quantum optimal control problems featuring time-varying costs and undesirable populations that ought to be avoided during the transient.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

New Scopes for Practice - Interdisciplinary Webinars for Emergency Medicine and Biomedical Informatics - Health Informatics

This paper presents the early outcomes of the educational cooperation between two European academic associations, namely the European Federation of Medical Informatics (EFMI) and European Society of Emergency Medicine (EUSEM). Two webinars were organized in December 2019 and June 2020 to explore areas where mutual education would be beneficial for interdisciplinary cooperation to advance the digitization of emergency departments for the benefit of patients, health professionals and the health system as a whole. Preliminary findings from the analysis of these two webinars are presented and the steps for further cooperation are outlined.published versionpeerReviewe

Spin resonance linewidths of bismuth donors in silicon coupled to planar microresonators

Ensembles of bismuth donor spins in silicon are promising storage elements for microwave quantum memories due to their long coherence times which exceed seconds. Operating an efficient quantum memory requires achieving critical coupling between the spin ensemble and a suitable high-quality factor resonator -- this in turn requires a thorough understanding of the lineshapes for the relevant spin resonance transitions, particularly considering the influence of the resonator itself on line broadening. Here, we present pulsed electron spin resonance measurements of ensembles of bismuth donors in natural silicon, above which niobium superconducting resonators have been patterned. By studying spin transitions across a range of frequencies and fields we identify distinct line broadening mechanisms, and in particular those which can be suppressed by operating at magnetic-field-insensitive `clock transitions'. Given the donor concentrations and resonator used here, we measure a cooperativity $C\sim 0.2$ and based on our findings we discuss a route to achieve unit cooperativity, as required for a quantum memory

Random-access quantum memory using chirped pulse phase encoding

Quantum memories capable of faithfully storing and recalling quantum states on-demand are powerful ingredients in bulding quantum networks [arXiv:0806.4195] and quantum information processors [arXiv:1109.3743]. As in conventional computing, key attributes of such memories are high storage density and, crucially, random access, or the ability to read from or write to an arbitrarily chosen register. However, achieving such random access with quantum memories [arXiv:1904.09643] in a dense, hardware-efficient manner remains a challenge, for example requiring dedicated cavities per qubit [arXiv:1109.3743] or pulsed field gradients [arXiv:0908.0101]. Here we introduce a protocol using chirped pulses to encode qubits within an ensemble of quantum two-level systems, offering both random access and naturally supporting dynamical decoupling to enhance the memory lifetime. We demonstrate the protocol in the microwave regime using donor spins in silicon coupled to a superconducting cavity, storing up to four multi-photon microwave pulses and retrieving them on-demand up to 2~ms later. A further advantage is the natural suppression of superradiant echo emission, which we show is critical when approaching unit cooperativity. This approach offers the potential for microwave random access quantum memories with lifetimes exceeding seconds [arXiv:1301.6567, arXiv:2005.09275], while the chirped pulse phase encoding could also be applied in the optical regime to enhance quantum repeaters and networks

Coherent spin dynamics of rare-earth doped crystals in the high-cooperativity regime

Rare-earth doped crystals have long coherence times and the potential to provide quantum interfaces between microwave and optical photons. Such applications benefit from a high cooperativity between the spin ensemble and a microwave cavity -- this motivates an increase in the rare earth ion concentration which in turn impacts the spin coherence lifetime. We measure spin dynamics of two rare-earth spin species, $^{145}$Nd and Yb doped into Y$_{2}$SiO$_{5}$, coupled to a planar microwave resonator in the high cooperativity regime, in the temperature range 1.2 K to 14 mK. We identify relevant decoherence mechanisms including instantaneous diffusion arising from resonant spins and temperature-dependent spectral diffusion from impurity electron and nuclear spins in the environment. We explore two methods to mitigate the effects of spectral diffusion in the Yb system in the low-temperature limit, first, using magnetic fields of up to 1 T to suppress impurity spin dynamics and, second, using transitions with low effective g-factors to reduce sensitivity to such dynamics. Finally, we demonstrate how the `clock transition' present in the $^{171}$Yb system at zero field can be used to increase coherence times up to $T_{2} = 6(1)$ ms.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

European Federation of Medical Informatics Participation in European Projects – HosmartAI Project as an Experience

The European Federation for Medical Informatics Association (EFMI) is the leading organisation in medical informatics in Europe and represents 29 countries, RSMI being an active and valuable member. EFMI is organized as a nonprofit organisation concerned with the theory and practice of Information Science and Technology within Health and Health Science in a European context. The objectives when founded in 1976 were: to advance international cooperation and dissemination of information in Medical Informatics on a European basis; to promote high standards in the application of medical informatics; to promote research and development in medical informatics; to encourage high standards in education in medical informatics; to function as the autonomous European Regional Council of IMIA. Since 2018 EFMI participates actively in European financed projects contributing with its members’ expertise in dissemination, education, data processing, user experience, and several other domains. HosmartAI (2020-2024) is a H2020 project with 24 partners, 12 EU countries, 10 mil Euros funding. In the HosmartAI project – AI for the Smart Hospital of the future - EFMI is leading in WP6 the T6.3 task - Standardization and Legislation, T6.4 task -  Certification, Staff training & education and alignment with existing practice and had a consistent contribution in WP2 with EFMI MIMO tool. The EFMI team will present the solutions developed during the project and invite audience to give feedback

Antimicrobial resistance among migrants in Europe: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are rising globally and there is concern that increased migration is contributing to the burden of antibiotic resistance in Europe. However, the effect of migration on the burden of AMR in Europe has not yet been comprehensively examined. Therefore, we did a systematic review and meta-analysis to identify and synthesise data for AMR carriage or infection in migrants to Europe to examine differences in patterns of AMR across migrant groups and in different settings. METHODS: For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed, and Scopus with no language restrictions from Jan 1, 2000, to Jan 18, 2017, for primary data from observational studies reporting antibacterial resistance in common bacterial pathogens among migrants to 21 European Union-15 and European Economic Area countries. To be eligible for inclusion, studies had to report data on carriage or infection with laboratory-confirmed antibiotic-resistant organisms in migrant populations. We extracted data from eligible studies and assessed quality using piloted, standardised forms. We did not examine drug resistance in tuberculosis and excluded articles solely reporting on this parameter. We also excluded articles in which migrant status was determined by ethnicity, country of birth of participants' parents, or was not defined, and articles in which data were not disaggregated by migrant status. Outcomes were carriage of or infection with antibiotic-resistant organisms. We used random-effects models to calculate the pooled prevalence of each outcome. The study protocol is registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42016043681. FINDINGS: We identified 2274 articles, of which 23 observational studies reporting on antibiotic resistance in 2319 migrants were included. The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or AMR infection in migrants was 25·4% (95% CI 19·1-31·8; I2 =98%), including meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (7·8%, 4·8-10·7; I2 =92%) and antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (27·2%, 17·6-36·8; I2 =94%). The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or infection was higher in refugees and asylum seekers (33·0%, 18·3-47·6; I2 =98%) than in other migrant groups (6·6%, 1·8-11·3; I2 =92%). The pooled prevalence of antibiotic-resistant organisms was slightly higher in high-migrant community settings (33·1%, 11·1-55·1; I2 =96%) than in migrants in hospitals (24·3%, 16·1-32·6; I2 =98%). We did not find evidence of high rates of transmission of AMR from migrant to host populations. INTERPRETATION: Migrants are exposed to conditions favouring the emergence of drug resistance during transit and in host countries in Europe. Increased antibiotic resistance among refugees and asylum seekers and in high-migrant community settings (such as refugee camps and detention facilities) highlights the need for improved living conditions, access to health care, and initiatives to facilitate detection of and appropriate high-quality treatment for antibiotic-resistant infections during transit and in host countries. Protocols for the prevention and control of infection and for antibiotic surveillance need to be integrated in all aspects of health care, which should be accessible for all migrant groups, and should target determinants of AMR before, during, and after migration. FUNDING: UK National Institute for Health Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, Imperial College Healthcare Charity, the Wellcome Trust, and UK National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare-associated Infections and Antimictobial Resistance at Imperial College London