Ist IFHRO SEAR Conference

Abstract

were present. The theme of the conference, which featured presentations that were both inspirational and thought provoking, was the development of health information management in the South East Asia region into the 21 st Century. Some of the challenges identified throughout the conference were unique to the Asia region but many were all too similiar to those faced by Health Information Managers (HIMs) in Australia on a daily basis.Many SEAR countries consist of small island provinces with large populations, where the delivery of healthcare and health information services can be problematic. Health information management positions are very new in many SEAR countries and although there is a need to develop this area throughout the region, shortages in financial and human resources create significant barriers to the achievement of this goal.Training of the current health information management workforce and the provision of supportive IT infrastructures and skills in the region are challenging. Many countries in the