123 Eur J Epidemiol (2016) 31:S1–S239 DOI 10.1007/s10654-016-0183-1 ABSTRACTS Health—exploring complexity: an interdisciplinary systems approach HEC2016 28 August–2 September 2016, Munich, Germany Eva Grill • Martin Mu¨ller • Ulrich Mansmann Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016 Health is a complex process with potentially interacting components (EFMI, MIE 2016). HEC2016 took place in Mu¨nchen, Germany, in the from the molecular to the societal and environmental level. Adequate main building of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universita¨t (LMU) from 28 research designs and data analysis methods are needed to improve our August to 2 September 2016 under the auspices of the Institute for understanding of this complexity, to ultimately derive high quality Medical Information Processing, Biometry and Epidemiology of LMU. evidence to inform patients, health professionals, and health policy The conference received 832 contributions for oral and poster decision makers. Also, effective patient-centred health care has to presentation (Table 1). Fourteen percent of them were from outside address the complexity of health, functioning, and disability, not only Europe with the largest group of 10 % from Asia (Table 2). Scientific by implementing interventions, but also by using information tech- program committees and reviewers selected 408 submissions as oral nology that represents the complexity of health care to inform all actors. contributions and 303 for poster presentations. The program was Given this background, we developed the concept of our confer- surrounded by twelve tutorials held by international renowned sci- ence HEC2016 as an interdisciplinary European event in beautiful entists and covered a broad spectrum from innovative biostatistical Bavaria, in the city of Mu¨nchen. Quite ironically this is the place, and epidemiological methods to tutorials in application of innovative where William of Ockham, whose ideas of parsimony are the very software, scientific writing and data protection issues. Over 50 panel opposite of complexity, accused of heresy, spent 17 years under the discussions and workshops allowed in-depth exchange of ideas on protection of the Bavarian King Ludwig IV. Furthermore, our local specific topics and underscored the interactive nature of HEC2016. public health hero Max von Pettenkofer (1818–1901) contributed a lot A special focus of HEC2016 was on the promotion of young to the basic systemic understanding of health, especially the relevance scientists from all disciplines whose participation was supported by of a healthy environment. numerous travel grants. Under the joint theme of health as a complex system we joined the We would like to express our deepest gratitude to all the colleagues activities of five scientific disciplines: who supported us as speakers, committee members and reviewers, lent Medical Informatics, Medical Biometry, Bioinformatics, Epi- us a hand before, during and after the conference, gave critical but demiology and Health Data Management. friendly comments at all stages of the preparations, supported us by The mission behind this interdisciplinary effort was to serve as an providing coffee, audience or Butterbrezen, and specifically to those important scientific forum for the exchange of new ideas and appli- who submitted contributions to the conference and attended the con- cations to strengthen health sciences on a national and international ference and its many tutorials, lectures and sessions. We extend our level. The analysis of health as a complex system opens needed gratitude to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for generous perspectives on a challenging reality: filtering current hypotheses, financial support (grant no. GR 3608/4-1). Last not least we would like resolving controversies, and tailoring interventions to the need of the to thank our families who allowed us to spend most of our weekends individual within a health system environment. The conference with organizing this conference, to William of Ockham for lending us encouraged the dialogue of the disciplines in order to advance our his razor (from time to time) and to Max von Pettenkofer for guidance. understanding of health and to decrease burden of disease. HEC2016 brought together the annual conferences of the German Eva Grill Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology Martin Mu¨ller (GMDS), the German Society for Epidemiology (DGEpi), the Inter- Ulrich Mansmann national Epidemiological Association- European Region (IEA-EEF) for the local organizing committee (Tables 1, 2) and the European Federation for Medical Informatics Association 123 Health—exploring complexity: an interdisciplinary systems approach HEC2016 S3 Table 1 Submissions for the different conference topics Harald Binder Maria Blettner Topic n % Britta Bo¨ckmann Martin Boeker Medical Informatics 350 42.1 Damian Borbolla Epidemiology 317 38.1 Oliver J. Bott Interdisciplinary 83 10.0 Antje Brandner Bernhard Breil Biometry 60 7.2 Ru¨diger Breitschwerdt Medical Documentation 22 2.6 Ralph Brinks Philipp Bruland Barbara Buchberger Oliver Burgert Table 2 Geographical distribution of submitted abstracts Thomas Bu¨rkle Rahul Butta Region n % Ann Bygholm Ramo´n Camano-Puig Africa 6 0.7 Lau Caspar Thygesen Eastern Europe 8 1.0 Stefanie Castell Australia, USA, Canada 35 4.2 James Cimino Northern Europe 39 4.7 Liliana Civjane Andre´ Conrad Southern Europe 44 5.3 Ronald Cornet Asia 79 9.5 Carlos Costa Western Europe 621 74.6 Diogo Costa Christoph Cramer Eva Cruel Reviewers: Jonas Czwikla The Scientific Program Committees and the Organising Committees Nils Daniel Forkert would like to thank the following reviewers for having evaluated the Karen Day abstracts submitted to HEC2016: Berry de Bruijn Etienne De Clercq Harald Aamot Nicolette de Keizer Samina Abidi Simon de Lusignan Klaus-Peter Adlassnig Jose´ Sima˜o de Paula Pinto Daniela Adolf Dominik de Sordi Bu¨lent Akmaz Kerstin Denecke Urs-Vito Albrecht Thomas Deserno Udo Altmann Justin Doods Elske Ammenwerth Nassim Douali Danny Ammon Johannes Drepper Frank Andersohn Georg Duftschmid Dennis Andrzejewski Martin Dugas Koray Atalag Claudio Eccher Adnan Bajraktarevic Michael Edlinger Sayonara Barbosa Eric Eisenstein Henrique Barros Christoph Engel Martin Bauer Rolf Engelbrecht Christine Baulig Uwe Engelmann Sebastian-Edgar Baumeister Maximilian Ertl Heiko Becher Jung-wei Fan Kurt Becker Alexander M. Fassmer Sigrid Behr Lina Fatima Soualmia Marianne Behrends Jesualdo Tomas Fernandez-Breis Tim Beißbarth Paola Gloria Ferrario Ralf Bender Gianluigi Fioriglio Martin Benedict Burkhard Fischer Gabriele Berg-Beckhoff Florian Fischer Bjo¨rn Bergh Imma Fischer Shoma Berkemeyer Stefanie Fischer Johannes Bernarding Monika Flaig Andreas Beß Mircea Focsa Isabelle Bichindaritz Sven Friedl Heike Bickebo¨ller Judith Fuchs Andreas Bietenbeck Kateryna Fuks Thomas Ganslandt 123 S4 E. Grill et al. Matthias Ganzinger Thomas Karopka Sebastian Garde Mathias Kaspar Ulrich Gauger Alexander Katalinic Olaf Gefeller Soudabeh Khodambashi Go¨tz Gelbrich Joachim Kieschke Gersende Georg Meinhard Kieser Andrew Georgiou Hauke Kindler Mauro Giacomini Gunnar O Klein Carsten Giehoff Stefanie Klug Matthias Gietzelt Guido Knapp William Goossen Petra Knaup Holger Gothe Ann-Kristin Kock Natalia Grabar Florian Kohlmayer Hong Grafe Daniela Koller Bernd Graubner Inke R. Ko¨nig Lena Griebel Jochem Ko¨nig Eva Grill Philipp Ko¨ppen Martin Grohmann Ghislain Kouematchoua Ulrich Grouven Bernd Kowall Vera Gumpp Max-Joseph Kraus Surjan Gyorgy Stefan Kraus Martin Haag Ge´rard Krause Birger Haarbrandt Dagmar Krefting Anke Ha¨ber Benno Kreuels Werner Hackl Siegfried Kropf Brahim Hadji Jo¨rn Kru¨ckeberg Johannes Haerting Frank Krummenauer Juliane Hardt Matjaz Kukar Reinhold Haux Harald Kusch Burkard Heckelbacher Oliver Kuß Harald Heinzl Martin Lablans Kai U. Heitmann Jean-Baptiste Lamy Ana Henriques Ute Latza Sabrina Hense Michael Lauseker Mira Hercigonja-Szekeres Hildegard Lax Kirsten H Herrmann Walter Lehmacher Michael Heß Richard Lenz Marvin Heyne Giorgio Leonardi Wolfgang Hipp Georgios Leontidis Jacob Hofdijk Lenka Lhotska Ralf Hofestaedt Doris Lindoerfer Barbara Hoffmann Myriam Lipprandt Felix Holl Matthias Lo¨be Bernd Holleczek Raquel Lucas Markus Hollerbach Tobias Luck Lukas Holzmann Diana Lungeanu Alexander Ho¨rbst Christian Lu¨pkes Pei-Yun Sabrina Hsueh Thomas Lux Ursula Hu¨bner Martin Macas Dirk Hu¨ske-Kraus Werner Maier Josef Ingenerf Nabeel Mangadan-Konath Santiago Iriso Ulrich Mansmann Franziska Jahn John Mantas Nico Ja¨hne-Raden Romaric Marcilly Katrin Jensen Steffen Ma¨rkle Markus Jochem Jochen Mau Karl-Heinz Jo¨ckel Luca Mazzola Clemens Jostes Frank Meineke Martti Juhola Christoph Meisner Christian Juhra Gheorghe-Ioan Mihalas Klaus Jung Rafael Mikolajczyk Verena Ju¨rgens Martina Mittlboeck Gerd Kallischnigg Anne Moen Rainer Kaluscha Maryati Mohd Yusof Andre´ Karch Mohyuddin Mohyuddin Helene Karcher Henning Mueller 123 Health—exploring complexity: an interdisciplinary systems approach HEC2016 S5 Martin Mu¨ller Christoph Schu¨rmann Stefan Mu¨ller-Mielitz Katrin Schu¨ssel Maurice Mulvenna Reinhard Schuster Peter Murray Bernd Schu¨tze Gerhard Nehmiz Jens Schwanke Jan Neuhaus Volker Sebastian Thiemann Axel Newe Martin Sedlmayr Katharina Nimptsch Christof Seggewies Sara Yasemin Nussbeck Hans-Konrad Selbmann Stefan Oberbichler Bjo¨rn Sellemann Frank Oemig Adele Seniori Costantini Claudia Ose Amnon Shabo Martin Overath Nicola Shaw Alessia Paglialonga Michael Shifrin Paulo Paiva Syed Sibte Raza Abidi Christoph Palm Susanne Singer Louise Pape-Haugaard