This special issue of the Health Informatics Journal arises from the 13th International Symposium for Health Information Management Research (ISHIMR 2008) hosted by Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand in collaboration with the University of Sheffi eld, 16–18
October 2008. The ISHIMR conference is organized annually by the Centre for Health Information Management Research (CHIMR) at the University of Sheffi eld, and this was
the fi rst time that the conference had been held in the southern hemisphere. Copyright © 2009 by SAGE Publications