Book excerpt: This series is intended for the rapidly increasing number of health care professionals who have rudimentary knowledge and experience in health care computing and are seeking opportunities to expand their horizons. It does not attempt to compete with the primers already on the market. Eminent international experts will edit, author, or contribute to each volume in order to provide compre hensive and current accounts of innovations and future trends in this quickly evolving field. Each book will be practical, easy to use, and well referenced. Our aim is for the series to encompass all of the health profes sions by focusing on specific professions, such as nursing, in indi vidual volumes. However, integrated computing systems are only one tool for improving communication arnong members of the health care team. Therefore, it is our hope that the series will stimulate profes sionals to explore additional means of fostering interdisciplinary exchange. This series springs from a professional collaboration that has grown over the years into a highly valued personal friendship. Our joint values put people first. If the Computers in Health Care series lets us share those values by helping health care professionals to communicate their ideas for the benefit of patients, then our efforts will have succeeded.