Editorial Note: Thank You to Our Previous Editor, Dr. Mowafa Househ

Abstract

As of February 2017, Dr. Mowafa Househ has retired as an Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Health Informatics in Developing Countries (JHIDC). Dr. Househ has been a long serving editor and promoter serving for over 7 years, beginning his role in January 2010. During his time as editor-in-chief, Dr. Househ worked tirelessly on promoting EMR evaluation and implementation internationally, with a specific focus on developing countries. Dr. Househ served with diligence, commitment, and worked effortlessly to improve the visibility and impact of the journal. Throughout his tenure, he broadened the JHIDC scope to include work in other areas such as public health informatics and epidemiological research. Dr. Househ placed high importance on ensuring that the reviews were conducted within a timely manner with the upmost quality making the JHIDC one of the leading informatics journals within the developing world. We will miss his energy, enthusiasm leadership, and entrepreneurial spirit and wish him all success in his future endeavors. Dr. Househ continues to lead the Middle East as a recognized and respected international figure in health informatics research with over 6 books published, over 10 book chapters, and over 200 research and conference papers presented locally and internationally [1-97]. He has received numerous national and international awards recognizing and praising his work as a Health Informatics and Public Health Informatics specialist. Below, are a summary of Dr. Househ’s important contributions to the field of health informatics that has had an impact locally and internationally. Contribution to Research: Dr. Mowafa’s research interests include, but not limited to the following areas; First and the foremost, he conducted research and worked with state-of-the-art public health informatics technologies that made a positive impact towards improving healthcare. Furthermore, he designed, developed, and tested innovative health informatics solutions to accelerate the transformation of the work processes and economic models required to improve health. He also made efforts to implement electronic medical records in developing countries [1-5]. Second, he also wrote extensively on the use of social media in healthcare with an aim of benefiting patients' access to health care information through education, networking, performing research, receiving support, goal setting, and tracking personal progress via social media [6-26]. Third, he made an original contribution to the growing field of health informatics research. A good proportion of Dr. Mowafa’s publications addressed the role of information technology in healthcare [27-85]. Fourth, epidemiological disorders in developing countries to study the patterns, causes, and effects of health and diseased conditions in a defined populations [86-90]. This work paved the way towards, public health informatics and promotion of public health practice and healthcare literacy, which will be a definitive documentation for the application of information, computer science and technology to public health practice, research, and learning [53, 57, 89]. He further extended his studies from Information Technology in healthcare to Nursing workflow, patient safety, and impact of telenursing on nursing practice and education. He has been actively involved in various other projects involving knowledge of nursing students about palliative care and their professional values [91-94]. Some of his work also focused on Dental informatics and Disease Registries [95-97]. Dr. Mowafa Househ has an excellent academic reputation. We truly appreciate his contribution, support, kindness and generosity. His personal commitment was incredibly helpful and allowed us to reach our goal. We want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts and on behalf of the entire JHIDC team for his diligent work and continuous assistance.