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SummaryThere has been a growing interest in Health Informatics applications, research, and education within the Middle East and North African Region over the past twenty years. People of this region share similar cultural and religious values, primarily speak the Arabic language, and have similar health care related issues, which are in dire need of being addressed. Health Informatics efforts, organizations, and initiatives within the region have been largely under-represented within, but not ignored by, the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA). Attempts to create bonds and collaboration between the different organizations of the region have remained scattered, and often, resulted in failure despite the fact that the need for a united health informatics collaborative within the region has never been more crucial than today. During the 2017 MEDINFO, held in Hangzhou, China, a new organization, the Middle East and North African Health Informatics Association (MENAHIA) was conceived as a regional non-governmental organization to promote and facilitate health informatics uptake within the region endorsing health informatics research and educational initiatives of the 22 countries represented within the region. This paper provides an overview of the collaboration and efforts to date in forming MENAHIA and displays the variety of initiatives that are already occurring within the MENAHIA region, which MENAHIA will help, endorse, support, share, and improve within the international forum of health informatics.

Background: Some Arab countries have health information systems (HIS) in place but they lack well trained IT staff. Poor management and lack of appreciation of the importance of HIS are major barriers to development and adoption of HIS in Arab hospitals. Aims: This research is part of a survey carried out to determine health informatics (HI) use and to assess the training needs of health professionals in Jordan and Palestine. Methods: A survey was conducted in 2017 among employees in all health professions at 14 hospitals in Jordan and Palestine to assess their use of the HI system and to assess the HI skills needed in both countries. Results: The majority of respondents reported that their hospital departments were employing computer systems to run services. More than half had received training in computer skills but also half said they needed specialized training in HI. Between 58.0% and 73.6% agreed that their hospitals provided the necessary support to operate HI systems. The vast majority (86.0%) of health professionals reported that they needed skills to monitor diagnosis and treatment, including access to clinical findings. Other skills needed included using shared hospital services (85.6%), using medical records (84.7%), managing electronic patient data (84.5%), using patient medical records to conduct clinical research (83.4%), and using tele-care services and technologies effectively (75.9%). Conclusions: Health professionals in Palestine and Jordan are in need of training in HI and therefore educational programmes in the area of HI are strongly recommended.

Background Training for health students is essential to equip them with health informatics competencies and skills. This study used a tailored version of the technology acceptance model (TAM) to assess Jordanian and Palestinian students' attitudes and thoughts regarding learning of health informatics, to determine their intention to learn, to assess the required skills for health informatics, and to determine reasons that could motivate students to study health informatics.Methods A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted among senior undergraduate students in health-related disciplines in four universities in Jordan and Palestine. A stratified random sample of 1000 students was emailed the link to the web-based questionnaire and requested to complete the questionnaire on a voluntary basis. According to the recommendation by Comrey and Lee (1992), the sample size should be more than 500 to be able to perform factor analysis. The questionnaire included questions on the TAM construct. A five-point Likert-type scale was used to record responses to the questions.Findings A total of 891 students responded to the study questionnaire; a response rate of 89%. The majority (83%; 737 of 891) of students were interested in learning health informatics. Approximately 63% (560 out of 891) of students reported that they would take a set of health informatics courses during their undergraduate degree if given such an opportunity. Approximately 70% (624 of 891) of students perceived health informatics learning as useful. Only a third of students (36%; 322 of 891) believed that their university provides a supportive environment for health informatics programmes. Approximately 75% (668 of 891) of students had the intention to enter the health informatics programme, and reported that they were enthusiastic about the use of health information technology in patient care in future medical practice.Interpretation Understanding students' perception and acceptance of health informatics learning is very important to predict the adoption and implementation of these applications during practice. Students perceived health informatics learning as useful and easy, had a positive attitude towards health informatics, and a strong intention to learn health informatics. The results of this study provide directions for the implementation of health informatics education.Funding This study, part of the HiCure project, has been funded with support from the European Commission and the European Union's Erasmus+ programme. ContributorsYK designed the study, carried out data collection, analysis, interpretation, and management, produced the tables and figures, and wrote and revised the Abstract. SA, HJ, NA, NM, SA, RM, and AT were involved in the study design, revision of the Abstract, and data collection. All authors have seen and approved the final version of the Abstract for publication. Declaration of interestsWe declare no competing interests

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