Proceedings of the Symposium on Computers in Medicine [antikvár]

PREFACE The emergence of the computer as the fundamental tool of the Cybernetic Information Revolution in the last twenty years is having far-reaching effects in many spheres of science and technology, generating new attitudes and opening up hitherto unexplored fields. These developments have penetrated in the field of biosciences in general, and medicine in particular; in the latter the use of the computer has brought about increased medical effectiveness and increased logistic efficiency. The scope of these applications is wide-ranging, covering a number of fields, such as automatic data processing, analysis of biochemical and medical laboratory data, diagnosis, psychiatry and psychology, etc., in addition to research activities, which have their origin in and around the hospitals, in close relation to the patient. A need has, therefore, arisen for a rational and effective exchange of information in the rapidly developing fields of computer usage in medicine with emphasis on actual application and recent work. It was felt that medical consultants, staff of clinical faculties of universities, medical practitioners and others concerned with the preparation and evaluation of data obtained in laboratories, hospitals research centres, and in the reahn of general medical practice, would derive some benefit from attendance at a Symposium, where they could contribute their views during the discussions following papers given by distinguished workers in the various areas of 'medical automation'. The two-day Symposium held at the Blackburn College of Technology and Design in February, 1968, in co-operation with the Institution of Computer Sciences, was concerned with the manifold application of computers in medicine and the outstanding feature was the wealth of practical detail discussed during the papers. The first half-day session dealt with the general uses of computers in medicine and diagnostic applications. This was followed by a second session concerned with the interpretation of haematological, biochemical, electrocardiographic and encephalographic data; computer applications in the field of radiation dosage were also considered. Computer