Basic information about the HELINA-L

Electronic mailing list on Health Informatics in Africa

The First International Working Conference on Health Informatics in Africa, HELINA'93, was held in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, in 19-23 April 1993. In the closing session of HELINA'93, it was proposed that this successful conference should be periodically organised and along the lines of HELINA'93. It was also decided that an electronic bulletin board should be established for the African health informatics community.

This electronic mailing list, HELINA-L@uku.fi, is that bulletin board. Please find below some technical information and instructions. Please also see the inaugural message to HELINA-L by Dr. Salah H. Mandil, WHO.

1. Contents

HELINA-L is for news, information and requests for information concerning the informatics (computer and communications) support for health care in Africa. It is not for general health-related or general computer-related information, as there are other lists for such purposes.

2. Volume of traffic

In order to contain the cost for subscribers in Africa with low-capacity facilities, the maximum length of any message is about 100-200 lines. More voluminous contributions are abstracted and the full text is made available by order from an archive of files. The maximum number of messages is about 5-10 per month, i.e. 1-2 per week in the long run. These limitations are based on a questionnaire among the subscribers in 1996.

3. Editing policy

HELINA-L is moderated, i.e. the bulletins distributed through the list will be selected by the list administrators, who reserve the right to select, edit and adapt, if necessary, materials they consider suitable for distribution. Commercial information is not distributed. The HELINA-L is initially operated by the HELINA'93 Overseas Bureau, in coordination with colleagues from IMIA (International Medical Informatics Association) and WHO (World Health Organisation).

4. How to contribute

You are welcome to contribute by sending news, announcements, reports on practical experience of using informatics in a health care setting in Africa, etc. If you wish to distribute some information through the HELINA-L, please send the text to:

    HELINA-L@uku.fi

5. How to subscribe and unsubscribe

All requests for subscription, change of address, signing off, etc., should be sent to an automated list server. To subscribe to the HELINA-L mailing list, send the following e-mail message:

    To:       majordomo@uku.fi
    Subject:  <none required, ignored>
    Message:
        subscribe HELINA-L

You will receive an acknowledgement and more instructions. To sign off from the list, send the following e-mail message:

    To:       majordomo@uku.fi
    Subject:  <none required, ignored>
    Message:
        unsubscribe HELINA-L

6. Subscription policy

The subscription of HELINA-L is free for anyone with an e-mail access to the Internet. Only a store-and-forward access is needed, not an on-line WorldWideWeb access.

7. Archive of files

The HELINA-L also contains an archive of files which can be retrieved by e-mail by anybody. To get a list of the files currently available, send the following message:

    To:       majordomo@uku.fi
    Subject:  <none required, ignored>
    Message:
        get HELINA-L index

To get a file, e.g. 'datafrm.txt' (the HELINA-L membership information form as a plain text file), send the following message:

    To:       majordomo@uku.fi
    Subject:  <none required, ignored>
    Message:
        get HELINA-L datafrm.txt

8. Web pages

There is also a WWW home page for the HELINA-L at http://www.uku.fi/english/organizations/helina-l. The web pages have been designed to be fairly small and simple, without excessive graphics or pictures unless otherwise stated. All the messages, the archive of files, and the administrative commands are available through the web pages as well.

However, interactive on-line access to the web is still not possible from all African countries, or it may be prohibitively expensive. The HELINA-L is therefore fully accessible by email also. To get a web page, e.g. the list of mailing lists and conferences etc. related to the HELINA-L which has a 'Universal Resource Locator' (URL) address of http://www.uku.fi/english/organizations/helina-l/links.html, send the following message:

    To:       getweb@usa.healthnet.org
    Subject:  <none required, ignored>
    Message:
        GET http://www.uku.fi/english/organizations/helina-l/links.html

    To:       getweb@usa.healthnet.org
    Subject:  <none required, ignored>
    Message:
        HELP

HELINA'93 was a major breakthrough in health informatics in Africa. The HELINA conferences are now being organised triannually, and a regional body for Africa will be established under the auspices of the IMIA. We wholeheartedly recommend the proceedings of the conferences to you or to the library of your institution.

It is hoped that the pioneering and enthusiastic spirit of HELINA'93 and HELINA'96 will be maintained in part through the medium of the HELINA-L bulletin board, in the anticipation of the next HELINA conference. You are welcome to join!

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Mikko Korpela, HELINA-L administrator
University of Kuopio, Computing Centre
PL 1627, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland

E-mail: Mikko.Korpela@uku.fi
Fax: +358-17-282 5566