| Communities | User Groups | Partnerships |

Communities and Partnerships

Communities of Practice

Fostering collaborations and promoting best practices - Communities of Practice are "learning communities" within SIIM, bound together by shared expertise and enthusiasm. SIIM is working toward building the infrastructure to create virtual communities of practice for areas of specialization such as Imaging Informatics Professionals, Residents, Community Radiologists, CIOs, Scientist/researchers, and 'open source tinkerers'. Participants work collaboratively on strategy, innovation, problem solving, development of professional skills, and promotion of best practices.

SIIM facilitates the formation of communities of practice and exchange of information by bringing the right people together, and providing an infrastructure in which the communities can thrive.

SIIM-Affiliated User Groups

SIIM-affiliated user groups coordinate users of a corporation's medical imaging technology and services. They identify strategies for tailoring products and services, promote the free interchange of information by tapping into the vast knowledge pool of users, and advance the effectiveness and utilization of systems and products. SIIM-affiliated user groups bring together and provide benefits to all categories of SIIM members - individual, institutional and corporate.

SIIM Mentoring Network

SIIM's Mentoring Network is designed to encourage, support, and develop researchers in the field of imaging informatics.

Society Collaborations and Partnerships

SIIM recognizes the advantages to the Imaging Informatics community of establishing and fostering worldwide liaisons with appropriate computer and medical societies. Collaborative efforts involving other organization allows each society to contribute their unique expertise and resources to serve the public and professional community for years to come.

• SIIM and the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT) founded the American Board of Imaging Informatics (ABII) that sponsors the Imaging Informatics Professional Certification Program and awards the Certified Imaging Informatics Professional (CIIP) designation to qualified candidates.
  
• SIIM (as an IHE sponsoring organization) initiated a program to take top PACS administrators in our field, train them in IHE, and send them to the IHE Connectathon as monitors.

• SIIM is a member society of the Academy of Academic Research (ARR) and the DICOM Standards Committee and supports the mission of both organizations.

• SIIM develops and sponsors guideline and technical standards with the American College of Radiology (ACR) and other related organizations for the medical imaging community.

• SIIM and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) team together to present educational programming in informatics for radiologists.

• SIIM annually co-sponsors educational sessions and publications at the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) Medical Imaging conference, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual meeting, and the Advancing Practice, Instruction, & Innovation through Pathology Informatics (APIII) conference.