For the 68th Annu­al Meet­ing of the German Asso­ci­a­tion for Medical Infor­mat­ics, Biom­e­try and Epidemi­ol­o­gy (GMDS e. V.), I warm­ly welcome the partic­i­pants from all over the world here in Heil­bronn and on the Bildungscampus.

Host­ing this confer­ence in our city is a great honor for us. Heil­bronn is on its way to becom­ing a city of knowl­edge and, with the Innovation Park KI Baden-Württemberg, is devel­op­ing into a power­house that can give the state impor­tant impuls­es. Inno­v­a­tive research at the inter­face of medi­cine and comput­er science, as the topic of this confer­ence, makes an impor­tant contri­bu­tion to main­tain­ing the perfor­mance of our health­care system at a high level in the future.

The great impor­tance of health research and the digi­ti­za­tion of our health­care system have become the focus of public debate due to the coro­na pandem­ic. Expe­ri­ence has made it clear that these issues concern us all. That is why I am also glad that this confer­ence is not planned mere­ly as a closed shop for the numer­ous nation­al and inter­na­tion­al experts. The orga­niz­ers from Heil­bronn Univer­si­ty of Applied Sciences under­stand the confer­ence motto “Science. Close to people” not only in that science focus­es as inten­sive­ly as possi­ble on people. Through vari­ous formats rang­ing from citi­zens’ dialogues to work­shops, a broad public is also to be inspired by digi­tal health research.

I wish the partic­i­pants of the 68th Annu­al Meet­ing of the GMDS excit­ing and inter­est­ing days in our city with many new impuls­es. I hope that, despite a certain­ly tight confer­ence program, you will find the time to get to know Heil­bronn a little better. It’s worth it! But I wish the orga­niz­ers a smooth and success­ful course of the conference.

Best regards

Harry Mergel