"The Federation shall be constituted as a nonprofit organisation concerned with the theory and practice of Information Science and Technology within Health and Health Science in a European context. We declare that the ten delegates here today from the ten national societies shall constitute the preliminary Council of the Federation which thus hereby exists."
Copenhagen, 11 September 1976.

Structure
The constitutional bodies of EFMI are

• The EFMI Council, a General Assembly of all members, officers and working group chair persons.
• The Board of officers, treasurer, vice presidents and president
• Working Groups organised by a chairperson (see also the EFMI Working Groups Menu section)

Objectives
The objectives of the European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI) founded in 1976 are:

• To advance international co-operation and dissemination of information in Medical Informatics on a European basis;
• To promote high standards in the application of medical informatics;
• To promote research and development in medical informatics;
• To encourage high standards in education in medical informatics;
• To function as the autonomous European Regional Council of IMIA

Activities
All European countries are entitled to be represented in EFMI by a suitable Medical Informatics Society. The term medical informatics is used to include the whole spectrum of Healthcare Informatics and all disciplines concerned with Healthcare and Informatics.

The organisation operates with a minimum of bureaucratic overhead and each national society supports the Federation by sending and paying for a representative to participate in the decisions of the Federation's Council. Also, and again to reduce overhead, English has been adopted as the official language, although simultaneous translation is often provided for congresses in non-English speaking countries.

Countries
Currently, 31 countries have joined the Federation. More information...

Application are open to representative societies in countries within the European Region of WHO. The EFMI council and boad normally meet twice a year.

Furthermore, it is represented by a Vice President (Europe) at meetings of the Board and the annual General Meetings of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA).

Congresses and Publications
So far 22 general congresses (Medical Informatics Europe – MIE) have been organised by EFMI. These have taken place in:

	Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina 2009
	Gothenborg, Sweden, 2008
	Maastricht, The Netherlands 2006
	Geneva, Switzerland 2005
	Saint Malo, France 2003
	Budapest, Hungary 2002
	Hannover, Germany 2000
	Ljubljana, Slovenia 1999
	Thessalonica, Greece 1997
	Copenhagen, Denmark 1996
	Lisbon, Portugal 1994
	Jerusalem, Israel 1993
	Vienna, Austria 1991
	Glasgow, Scotland 1990
	Oslo, Norway 1988
	Rome, Italy 1987
	Helsinki, Finland 1985
	Brussels, Belgium 1984
	Dublin, Ireland 1982
	Toulouse, France 1981
	Berlin, Germany 1979
	Cambridge, UK 1978

EFMI has started a new series of meetings: the Special Topic Conferences (STC). Its concept has the following components:

• Organization by a member society in combination with its annual meeting
• EFMI council meeting is integral part
• Topic defined to the needs of the member society
• Relevant EFMI Working groups are engaged for the content
• Contributions mostly on invitation
• Small 2-day conference with 100+ participants

The STC conferences took place in:

	Reikjavik, Iceland 2010
	Antalya, Turkey 2009
	London, United Kingdom 2008
	Brijuni island, Croatia 2007
	Timisoara, Romania 2006
	Athens, Greece 2005
	Munich, Germany 2004
	Rome, Italy 2003
	Nicosia, Cyprus 2002
	Bucharest, Romania 2001

The proceedings of these congresses were usually published by Springer in the series "Lecture Notes in Medical Informatics" and by IOS Press in the series "Studies in Health Technologies and Informatics".

A selection of the best papers from the MIE-conferences were published in special volumes of the International Journal of Medical Informatics and Methods of Information in Medicine. The next MIE congress will take place in 2011 in Oslo, Norway. The next EFMI STC conferences 2009 in Antalya, Turkey and 2010 in Reijkjavik, Iceland.

To date five official journals adopted by the Federation are: Methods of Information in Medicine, Medical Informatics & The Internet in Medicine, Health Informatics Europe, International Journal of Medical Informatics, Informatics in Primary Care.