History

The “German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (GMDS) e.V.” - until September 1991 it was called the “German Association for Medical Documentation, Informatics and Statistics e.V. (GMDS) - is an independent scientific-medical professional association. It is entered into the register of associations as a non-profit association and has its headquarters in Cologne. The GMDS adds to the great number of scientific-medical organisations, which is at approximately 180 organisations in the Federal Republic of Germany, and has its primary fields of activity in theory and application, in research and teaching. Its task is promoting medical informatics including medical documentation, medical biometry and epidemiology.

Since the mid-1950s, the activities of the new specialist fields of "medical documentation and statistics" have been incorporated into the efforts of the "Medicine Working Committee" which founded in 1955 in the German Association for Documentation, the predecessor of today's GMDS. It was finally constituted as an association in 1955, but the origins of the GMDS can be traced back to 1951. It is thus the oldest professional association in Europe in the fields of medical documentation, informatics and statistics

Organisational Development of the GMDS

  • GMDS

    1955 Foundation of the Committee for "Documentation in Medicine" in the DGD
    1956 First "own" conference
    1957 Start setting up working groups and task groups:
    Task groups (vertical interconnection with medical subjects)
    Working groups (horizontal topics)
    1959 Name changed to "Working Committee on Medicine in the DGD"
    1964 Establishment of an office of the Working Committee on Medicine
    1966 Name changed to "German Society for Medical Documentation and Statistics in the DGD e. V." (GMD)
    1970 Change of the abbreviation GMD to GMDS to avoid confusion with the " Association for Mathematics and Data Processing" (GMD)
    1974 More than 500 members
    1975 Separation from the DGD, start of cooperation with the Federal Medical Association
    1976 Name changed to " German Association for Medical Documentation, Informatics and Statistics e. V." (GMDS)
    1978 Admission to the AWMF, Association of the Scientific Medical Professional Associations
    1991 More than 1,000 members
    1992 Division into the departments of medical informatics, medical biometry and epidemiology, name changed to " German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology e. V." (GMDS)
    1995 40th anniversary of the professional association
    Official foundation of the Academy of Medical Informatics (together with BVMI and DVMD) and the Centre for Biometry in the Academy for Public Health e. V.
    1997 Appointment of a full-time executive director
    1998 Introduction of a Medical Documentation section
    2000 More than 1,500 members
    The office moves from Cologne to Bonn
    2005 50th anniversary of the professional association
    The German Working Group for Epidemiology (DAE) of the GMDS is transferred to the newly founded German Association for Epidemiology (DGEpi)
    2006 Around 1,800 members
    2008 More than 1,900 members
    The office moves from Bonn to Cologne
    2009 KIS conference is integrated into the conhIT congress, from 2018 DMEA congress
    2011 Joint annual conference with the German Association for Epidemiology (DGEpi) e.V. in Mainz
    2012 More than 2,000 members / The journal "Methods of Information in Medicine" becomes the official international journal of the GMDS
    2015 60th anniversary of the professional society
    2017 Establishment of the Department of Medical Bioinformatics and Systems Biology

  • GMDS Presidents

    1951–1952 Prof. Dr. med. U. Derbolowski, UKE *

    1952–1953 Prof. Dr. med. J. Hartung, Hannover *

    1953–1955 Prof. Dr. med. S. Koller, Mainz *

    1955–1964 Prof. Dr. med. O. Nacke, Bielefeld *

    1964–1965 Prof. Dr. E. Weigelin, Bonn *

    1965–1973 Prof. Dr. med. G. Wagner, Heidelberg *

    1973–1975 Prof. Dr. med. H.-J. Lange, Munich

    1975–1977 Prof. Dr. med. P.-L. Reichertz, Hannover

    1977–1979 Prof. Dr. med. K. Überla, München

    1979–1981 Prof. Dr. med. C. Th. Ehlers, Göttingen

    1981–1983 Prof. Dr. rer. nat. N. Victor, Heidelberg

    1983–1985 Prof. Dr. L. Horbach, Erlangen

    1985–1987 Prof. Dr. rer. biol. hum. Dipl.-Math. H.-K. Selbmann, Tübingen

    1987–1989 Prof. Dr. Ing. K. Sauter, Kiel

    1989–1991 Prof. Dr. med. W. van Eimeren, Neuherberg

    1991–1993 Prof. Dr. med. J. Michaelis, Mainz

    1993–1995 Prof. Dr. med. O. Rienhoff, Göttingen

    1995–1997 Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Dr. med. habil. W. Köpcke, Münster

    1997–1999 Prof. Dr. rer. nat. K.-H. Jöckel, Essen

    1999–2001 Prof. Dr. rer. nat. R. Klar, Freiburg

    2001–2003 Prof. Dr. rer. nat. W. Lehmacher, Cologne

    2003-2005 Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Dr. med. H.-E. Wichmann, Munich

    2005-2007 Dr. rer. nat. Iris Zöllner, Stuttgart

    2007-2009 Prof. Dr. med. K.-A. Kuhn, Munich

    2009-2011 Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Johannes Haerting, Halle (Saale)

    2011-2013 Prof. Dr. Heike Bickeböller, Göttingen

    2013-2015 Prof. Dr. Paul Schmücker, Mannheim

    2015-2017 Prof. Dr. Ulrich Mansmann, Munich

    2017-2019 Prof. Dr. Andreas Stang, MPH, Essen

    2019-2021 Prof. Dr. Alfred Winter, Leipzig

    2021-2023 Prof. Dr. Harald Binder, Freiburg


    * Note: Chairman of the GMDS predecessor organisation "Subgroup/Working Committee Medicine of the German Society for Documentation".

  • Predecessor Organisations

    1949 Foundation of the "Medical-Statistical Working Group"
    1951 Foundation of the "Subgroup Medicine" in the German Documentation Association (DGD)