Medical and information technology

Abstract

Information technology has had a huge influence on many areas of medicine over the last 20 years. Large computer systems are now an established part of administrative systems in medical institutions - for hospital logistics, billing of services and storing patient data. In medical technology itself three-dimensional (3D) spatial and functional imaging (X-ray, ultrasound, tomography) has resulted in a changing awareness of the human body and in higher expectations of quality in diagnosis, therapy and rehabilitation. We not only expect a new knee joint to function reliably; it is also assumed today that both legs will be of equal length, the feet are aligned parallel to each other and the new knee can bear as much weight as the one it has replaced. Meeting such demands has only been possible since the beginning of the nineties and would not have been feasible without monitors, measurement technology and computer-controlled instruments in the operating theatre. We can only achieve optimal results if 3D image data is used to precisely plan the surgical procedure pre-operatively, and if these plans are executed precisely, to the millimetre. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.