association for veterinary informatics

Founded by a group of near 20 veterinarians and meeting in St. Louis for the 1981 American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) agreement. The Association for Veterinary Informatics (AVI) operated under the name American Veterinary Computer Society (AVCS) until 1995.It currently operates as a non-profit organization recognized by the AVMA. The Association for Veterinary Informatics (AVI) is a non-profit world-wide and interdisciplinary society comprised of individuals involved in biomedical informatics study, project, application, instruction and advocacy within the domain of veterinary medicine. This includes the foundational components of biomedical informatics (knowledge engineering, computer science and information science) as it is applied to clinical research informatics, clinical informatics, bioinformatics, translational medicine and public health. To guide and transform the veterinary profession in understanding, using and extending the practice of informatics.The goals of the society were realigned at a strategic planning meeting of members in 1994. The membership as an educational resource, promoting the use of information technology and electronic communications in all aspects of the profession, and the development and promotion of standards in veterinary information management. The association complete the bimonthly newsletter and as broadly as possible throughout  the profession through the use of existing electronic forums and in peer reviewed journals. The bi-monthly newsletter has been the major communication tool of the Association. The newsletter is prepared by the newsletter editor and incorporates at least one major informative article, along with administrative news of the society and of the informatics community in general. Members are particularly encouraged to communicate their experiences in the newsletter. Separate interests can best be met complete contribution in one of six present working groups including: practice management systems; data and messaging standards; computer-aided instruction/computer assisted learning; American Medical Informatics Association;The Association presently provides telecommunications amongst members via the Internet on the AVI-L listserv conversation list.