During the next decade, the demand for care will grow explosively. This is due not only to the changes in life expectancy and the improving quality of life but definitely also to our more individualised way of living.

ICT (Information and Communication Technology) will be primordial in the fulfilment of this growing demand for individualised care. Although information and technology are key aspects and as such have been the focus for the past several years, the future will see a significant shift in emphasis to communications. The way we communicate with care providers as well as the way care providers and their tools will communicate about us will become central to the way we structure our care, both social and medical.

Compunetics, the combination of computing and networking, carries both meanings of the word networking. In the title of the ICMCC event this terminology was chosen to stress the importance of the networking aspects in the communication between tools as well as humans.

The use of Medical and Care Compunetics (MCC) will become more and more important. In due course patients will be considered as clients with a strong say in how, where and when they want to receive their care, be it social or related to health prevention or medical treatment.

In the coming years ICMCC will serve as a platform event for all aspects related to MCC and for all those concerned. Doctors as well as researchers, industry professionals (medical, pharmacy, ICT) as well as patients, care givers and policy makers and insurers will find the ICMCC event an ideal place to meet with people and to exchange plans and ideas. But it will also be a platform for the latest developments both in science and in industry as well as a splendid meeting place for all types of institutions and organisations.

We, as an organisation, are very grateful to the Dutch ministries, the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) and the European Commission (IST) for their support. We extend a special word of gratitude to all the outstanding scientists and industrialists who joined our advisory boards. Through them we see a strong representation from organisations like IEEE, EHTEL, EAMBES and HL7.

ICMCC is set up as a collection of workshops and smaller symposia. In its first year, ICMCC will cover a broad range of subjects (from imaging to distant monitoring, from policy and legal aspects of the pan-European situation to ways of pan-national disease surveillance, from pharmaceutical R&D to EHR security), that show us the way ahead for the event. We would like to thank all the workshop organisers for their excellent work.

Lodewijk Bos

Swamy Laxminarayan

Andy Marsh