Case-based telematic systems towards equity in health care. Introduction to the symposium.

The theme of this International Symposium, co-sponsored by EFMI (the European Federation for Medical Informatics) and WHO-Eur (the European Office of the World Health Organisation) is made of four components: (1) an ethical principle: equity in health care, that aims to social justice; (2) measurements of equity that should be case-based/population related; (3) communication of this information at a wide scale, using telematics, e.g. integrated computer systems at distance; (4) actions to improve health care and equity in its delivery by using resource management tools and developing quality of care. The combination of these four elements is recommended as a coherent scheme for future actions of public authorities in health care. They were therefore associated in the somewhat complex title of the symposium. A special attention is given to the present degree of availability of a large number of case based/population related data sources in Europe, as well as on the need to develop generic models in telematics, rather than too strict standards at the user level. These information systems can be made easily accessible to clinicians and epidemiologists as an aid to their decision making in the European region.