Book excerpt: Information Technology for the Health Professions 3/e, examines the impact of information technology on a wide variety of health care fields. These include telemedicine, radiology, pharmacy, dentistry, surgery, rehabilitative therapies, and public health. The book includes the latest information on medical informatics, informational resources, and electronic record keeping in the Health Information Technology decade. The issues raised by global warming and by the possibilities of new pandemics make the addition of the chapter on information technology in public health particularly timely. Our approach provides students with an accessible presentation of the most current computer and medical technologies. The updated chapter on privacy and security includes new information including the Real ID Act of 2005--a law requiring every American to have an electronic ID card.