The editors of this publication, and by extension their institutions, Pan American Health Organization, Medical Informatics Foundation of Argentina, and the European Commission, are to be congratulated on their achievement in assembling and publishing this much needed text. The importance of the undertaking is attested to by the quality of the contributions; all are eminently qualified experts in their aspects of medical informatics.

The volume is laid out intelligently and logically. It develops the theme that the state of human health is to a large extent dependent on the utilization of scientific medical information, that information technology has entered a “golden age” with the potential of making this information more widely available than ever before, and that there are already many successful applications in medical informatics from which we can learn. To be sure, there are many determinants yet to be identified. Many are attitudinal, economic and managerial in nature. Some are still technological.

Here the good news includes the growth world-wide of reliable, fast communication networks, the general warm reception of the newest improved interfaces such as the World Wide Web and its client versions, and cautious enthusiasm for the languages for application writing such as the object-oriented set. Discouraging news includes the absence of multimedia file (and patient record) systems and the users’ continuing thirst for reasonable operating systems.

Internet, Telematics and Health serves not only to document where we are today, but it contains insights into what we can expect tomorrow. Health professionals of all kinds, in many countries, who eagerly seek to apply the new communications technologies in their work will find this a useful and heartening book.