National EFMI Member Society: Italian Medical Informatics Society (AIIM)
Short overview: The Italian Association for Medical Informatics (AIIM) was founded 1975 to promote the applications of informatics in the different areas of medicine.

The objectives of the AIIM are the dissemination and exchange of information on medical informatics, for support patient care, teaching, research and health care administration; to advance international cooperation in medical informatics; to promote medical informatics education and to organize courses for health services personnel.

AIIM is a Member of the European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI)and the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA).

The Membership categories are:

• Regular members including physicians, nurses, dentists, teachers, researchers, biomedical engineers, health services administrators, other health care professionals who have a strong interest in medical informatics;
• Honorary members: very important persons in the field of medical informatics;
• Correspondent members, including representatives of other Organizations and Associations having similar aims;
• Promoter members

The President of AIIM and the national council(10 members), are elected every four years by the membership.

At present, AIIM organize a National Congress every two years, and annually other meetings and workshops on specific topics. The previous AIIM National Congresses have been held in Parma (1977), Catania (1985), Firenze (1988), Como (1989), Cassino (1990), Catania (1991), Genova (1992), Roma (1994), Venezia (1996), Taranto (1998) and Padova (2001). In 2003 hosted the European Federation of Medical Informatic Special Topic Conference.

AIIM organized in Rome the Seventh European Congress on Medical Informatics (MIE 1987)- about 1,000 participants coming from 32 countries all over the world took part in the Congress.

The proceedings of the national congresses published by AIIM are an important source of information for the knowledge of medical informatics progress in Italy.

AIIM cooperates with governmental and not governmental Authorities as an adviser in the field of medical informatics.

Guidelines on Telemedicine and Telematics in Health Care and on Health Cards, were approved during the national Congress in Venice(1996) with the participation of representatives of governmental and military health organizations, health professionals and scientific associations,researchers, telecommunication and information technology companies and industries, national research council, and citizen's associations.