What is IAIMS?

IAIMS is a grant program of the National Library of Medicine, an agency of the National Institutes of Health, to help health science institutions and medical centers integrate information systems in support of patient care, education, and research.  An IAIMS program focuses on the way in which an institution manages information.  The goal is to create a mechanism to effectively manage the knowledge of medicine and to provide for a system of comprehensive and convenient information access.

Since 1984 the National Library of Medicine has provided grant assistance to medical centers and health science organizations for IAIMS projects.  There are currently two phases to the NLM IAIMS process.  The first is an institution-wide IAIMS planning phase.  During the two-year planning phase, an organization must develop a strategic IAIMS plan.  The plan should include a comprehensive analysis of existing information resources, future (five-year) projections of systems, information management policies, and a description of how IAIMS will be developed, organized, and managed.   The operational phase provides the organization with IAIMS implementation funding for up to five years.