Impact of Computer and Communication Technology on Radiology and Related Disciplines

Abstract

Modern medicine is primarily a process of information exchange. Keeping people healthy demands the communication of information about personal and public health to (and from) individuals, voluntary health groups and government agencies empowered to protect public health. Diagnosing an injury or illness depends on extracting information from the patient and integrating it into a pattern of symptoms that are recognizable by the physician as characteristic of a particular clinical condition. Correcting a medical problem requires a proper match between the clinical condition and available information about effective treatment methods for the condition. Even the acknowledgment that an effective treatment is unavailable requires information. Evaluative measuring to separate useful from useless techniques in medicine are based on the collection and analysis of information about the clinical results acquired with the techniques. All aspects of medicine depend on the extraction, communication and utilization of information. Viewed from the perspective of information science, medicine could be defined as the process of acquiring and using information for the purpose of preserving and restoring human health.