Book excerpt: This volume contains the proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Pictorial Information Systems in Medicine" held August 27-September 7, 1984 in Hotel Maritim, Braunlage/Harz, Federal Republic of Germany. The program committee of the institute consisted of KH Hohne (Director), G. T Herman, G. S. Lodwick, and D. Meyer-Ebrecht. The organization was in the hands of Klaus Assmann and Fritz Bocker In the last decade medical imaging has undergone a rapid development New imaging modalities such as Computer Tomography (CT), Digital Angiography (DSA) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) were developed using the capabilities of modern computers. In a modern hospital these technologies produce already more then 25% of image data in digital form. This format lends itself to the design of computer assisted Information systems Integrating data acquisition, presentation, communi cation and archiving for all modalities and users within a department or even a hospital. Advantages such as rapid access to any archived Image, synoptic presentation, computer assisted image analysis to name only a few, are expected. The design of such pictorial information systems, however, often called PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems) In the medical community is a non-trivial task involving know-how from many disciplines such as - Medicine (especially Radiology), - Data Base Technology, - Computer Graphics, - Man Machine Interaction, - Hardware Technology and others. Most of these disCiplines are represented by disjunct scientific communities.