Health and medical informatics contribute significantly to high quality and efficient health care and high quality medical research. To advance and further develop the beneficial role of health and medical informatics in the medical field, high quality training of health and medical informatics specialists is crucial. IPHIE members, for several reasons, are convinced that a thoughtful international orientation of health and medical informatics students should be a vital and indispensable part of this training.

IPHIE members appreciate the growing tendency for countries all over the world to harmonize their financial and economic markets as well as their health care systems. More importantly, many national health care systems and medical research areas are forced to deal with global problems that call for creative solutions on an international scale. IPHIE members recognize the useful role health and medical informatics can play in addressing these world-wide issues. For these reasons IPHIE members are convinced that students in health and medical informatics should be trained to meet the demands of an increasingly international medical environment.