Medicine in the 21st Century: Global Problems, Global Solutions

Abstract

Summary Objectives: To discuss application areas of information technology in medicine and health care on the occasion of the opening of the Private Universität für Medizinische Informatik und Technik Tirol/University for Health Informatics and Technology Tyrol (UMIT) at Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria. Results and Conclusions: Important application areas of information technology in medicine and health are appropriate individual access to medical knowledge, new engineering developments such as new radiant imaging methods and the implantable pacemaker/ defibrillator devices, mathematical modeling for understanding the workings of the human body, the computer-based patient record, as well as new knowledge in molecular biology, human genetics, and biotechnology. Challenges and responsibilities for medical informatics research include medical data privacy and intellectual property rights inherent in the content of the information systems.