Medical Information Science

IN THE 1970s, computers evolved into sophisticated information processing and communication systems. The 1980s will demonstrate the full impact of what they can do. Much has been written about the implications of this new electronic revolution,¹⁻⁵and the outlines of a new information processing world are now evident. Today we may confidently project a new generation of computer systems that will accommodate the full functional diversity that health professionals require as end users of information. Equipment exists,⁶dramatic examples can be demonstrated,⁷,⁸and the price is almost right. Without preempting the expertise of the systems designers who will be responsible for providing new working systems, the future should look something like this: large mainframe computers will concern themselves with bulk tasks, eg, managing common archives and reorganizing large files, mainframe satellites will be involved in printing extensive batch reports, and communication nodes will link the archives with