About Us

Aims and Tasks

The "German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (GMDS) e.V." is an independent scientific-medical professional association whose primary field of activity is medical informatics, medical biometry, epidemiology, medical bioinformatics and systems biology, including medical documentation in theory and application, in research and teaching.

The GMDS offers its medical informatics, biometrics and epidemiological methods as a "cross-sectional subject" of all medical sub-fields in cooperation and develops these methods further together in particular with informatics, mathematics, statistics, clinical research, bioinformatics and health services research.

Currently, the GMDS is the only scientific association for these five disciplines in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with about 2,000 members. It cooperates with a number of neighbouring professional associations in exchanging experiences, pursuing common goals or, for example, organising joint workshops or conference sections.

In addition, the representation of the field continues to develop through expert representation, e.g. in the planning of public funding measures, in questions of standardisation, in the establishment of teaching institutions, in questions of education, further education and training, and in legislative measures.

The GMDS as an organisation

The General Assembly which regulates all fundamental matters of the association meets once a year. The President is in charge of the day-to-day matters of the association.

The scope of activities of the Presidium include scientific and health policy tasks.

The Advisory Council consists, among others, of the members of the Presidium and the heads of the working groups, task groups, commissions and specialist fields. It decides on the procedural rules and the scientific priority work and establishes the framework topics for conferences.

In order to carry out its tasks, the GMDS is divided into thematically oriented divisions and specialist fields.

The aforementioned specialist fields "Medical Informatics", "Medical Biometry" and "Epidemiology" are responsible for the specialist field related work and are each led by a field.

The specialist fields are each subdivided into specialist committees and working groups. These have predominantly methodologically oriented focal points of work. They are interdisciplinary with regard to the medical specialities. The project groups are set up by the specialist committees for specific, time-limited subtasks. 

The working groups have the task of linking the subject areas represented in the GMDS with the various medical specialities.

The Section also enables individuals without a scientific university degree to participate professionally within the GMDS. 

In order to cope with the extensive organisational tasks, an office was established with headquarters in Cologne and a managing director was appointed.