The National Student Forum (NSF) for Health Informatics is a collaborative initiative undertaken by the National Institutes of Health Informatics (NIHI) and COACH: Canada’s Health Informatics Association to bring together students interested in Health Informatics across Canada. NSF as an important means of enhancing opportunities for students to pursue their education in HI, participate in HI research and better understand the array of options they have in pursuing a career in Health Informatics.

 

NSF is a vehicle for connecting students who are involved in the increasing number of HI educational programs across Canada, in order to enhance their educational experience and provide opportunities for them to be involved in research and dialogue about new and emerging issues. Through active student involvement, NSF will foster discussion, collaboration and learning among students, regardless of their academic discipline, level of study or location.

 

Some of the initial NSF activities is the creation of a Student Registry (a part of NIHI’s Community of Scholars system), as well as the development of a Student Track in the biannual Advanced Health Informatics Conference (AHIC 2010), the development of a repository of recorded presentations on HI topics, and co-ordination of regular interactive discussion sessions. Initiatives like these leverage existing resources in the community and ensure that there are no registration fees involved for participating students and faculty which could become a barrier to participation in the Forum. 

 

NSF will be managed by students and for students. Julie Kim, a Ph.D. student at the University of Toronto and practicing HI professional, initially led NSF with the assistance of other students and with the facilitation of NIHI and COACH. Pavel Roshanov, a Masters student at McMaster University is currently leading NSF.

 

For more information about the National Student Forum, please use the Contact NSF form.