Connecting Academia and Industry Through Communities of Practice in the Informatics Domain

Healthcare is rapidly evolving, with both academic institutions and industry playing critical roles in shaping its future. This paper explores the application of the community of practice (CoP) framework connecting these sectors in the context of health informatics supported by the European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI). We demonstrate how to explore and foster collaboration, build capacity, and disseminate knowledge across academic institutions and industry based on the principles of the CoP framework. Data were collected through a document analysis, including committee documents, research publications, and case studies of academic-industry partnerships. The findings show that the CoP framework can be applied to the informatics domain to support and foster collaboration between academic institutions and the healthcare industry. This work suggests different strategies to enhance collaboration, innovation, professional development, and leadership within the health informatics community for more sustainable health systems.