The Sociedade Brasileira de Informática em Saúde (Brazilian Society of Health Informatics), abbreviated as SBIS, is a professional society created in November 1986 in Campinas, during the First Brazilian Congress on Health Informatics. It has the mission of promoting the development and the interchange of ideas and results in the fields devoted to the information technologies applied to the health sciences (Medical informatics, Telemedicine, Bioinformatics, etc.). Mission and areas of interest SBIS is a nonprofit membership organization of individuals and institutions interested in developing and using information technologies to improve health care in Brazil. To accomplish its goal, SBIS may develop the following activities: Stimulate educational activities related to health informatics; Stimulate scientific research and technical development in Health Informatics; Organize conferences, symposiums, courses, seminars, and other activities that lead to experience and knowledge exchange; Cooperate with sister societies; Contribute to the definition of healthcare policies; Promote Health Informatics as a means to reduce costs and improve the quality of healthcare services. Some of SBIS areas of interest are: Health information systems Health information management Electronic patient record Telemedicine and telehealth Medical decision support systems Biological signal processing Medical image processing Internet applications in health Health information standards Health informatics education Distance education in health Currently it has around 780 associates, thus being the third largest in the Americas, after the American Medical Informatics Association and the Canada's Health Informatics Association, and the largest in Latin America, according to the International Medical Informatics Association. The Society is affiliated to the International Medical Informatics Association since 1988. Governance The current Executive Board (2008–2010) is led by Dr. Cláudio Giulliano Alves da Costa (President). Former presidents were: Roberto J. Rodrigues, Renato M.E. Sabbatini, Mariza Machado Klück, Beatriz de Faria Leão, Daniel Sigulem, Umberto Tachinardi, Lincoln de Assis Moura Jr. and Heimar de Fátima Marin. Short histories of Health Informatics in Brazil have been published elsewhere by former presidents of the Society. Conferences and Meetings SBIS organizes since 1986 a biannual national conference, the Brazilian Congress of Health Informatics and a biannual specialized conference on Electronic Health Records (PEP); besides other, smaller and less periodical meetings. The Brazilian Congress on Health Informatics takes place in different cities every two years and has as its main subjects the applications of information technology and telematics to medicine, nursing, dentistry and allied health care sciences, from the point of view of the expert scientific and technical