IMIA Landmark 1966

The Elsinore Conference

 

Held in Elsinore, Denmark in 1966, the conference was the first European conference on use of computers in medicine. (Above: Kronborg Castle at Elsinore.)

Cover Page of the Program of the 1966 Elsinore Conference

(Source: Library of Congress)

   An attempt to replace the “groping and limited experiements” with “determined work”, the Elsinore conference(s), presided over by Drs. Tybjaerg Hansen (Denmark), Homer Warner (USA), and A. Redmond (France), tried to codify areas of research to better be able to create specific working groups with specific expertise and interest.  The unified goal was to discover the best informational model for a complete medical information system.


   Although no breakthroughs were made at the conference, it served to clarify what had been going on separately throughout the world and show what needed to be done (if not exactly how to do it.)

Among those at the conference, (top-row, left-to-right) François Grémy, Gustav Wagner, Donald Lindberg, (middle row, left-to-right) Charles Flagle , Hubert Pipberger, Homer Warner, (bottom row, left-to-right),, G. Octo Barnett, Cesar Caceres and Lee Lusted.