In September 2002, telemedicine experts from all over the world gathered in Regensburg, Germany to join the 7^th International Conference on the Medical Aspects of Telemedicine with the topic Implementation of Health Telematics into Medical Practice. This conference was hosted by the Department of Trauma Surgery of the University of Regensburg, the German Society for Health Telematics and the International Society for Telemedicine.

During this conference, a unique exchange of research results took place, involving participants from 46 countries and 5 continents. AU major topics of current telemedicine applications and research activities were addressed and an exchange of experiences in almost all fields of telemedicine took place during this 4 day conference. This so-called Regensburg telemedicine conference was probably one of the most important events of the international telemedicine scene. In order to preserve some of the many very interesting topics, we are publishing this book, which addresses very different subjects from research to practice and from medicine to information technology and médical informatics issues.

In most of the European countries, the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia, telemedicine is already helping to keep the health care Systems under control, in terms of cost savings and quality assurance. This is reflected by significant funding from the govemments of many of these countries, which are more than ever under huge pressure to keep the health care system alive. However, telemedicine has not yet reached mainstream medicine. There is only limited interest among scientists to address the issue of the impact of telemedicine on the current practice of medicine. Proper outcomes research on the effectiveness of telemedical applications would strongly establish the Implementation of telemedicine in current medical practice. This is what makes this publication so valid.

Our goal is to keep up the good work, to make telemedicine more attractive than ever, use it as much as possible to improve delivery of health care and help us focus on the ethical basis of medicine: to serve the patient – as an individual and as part of our society – and that is the human aspect of modern technology.

The Editors