Education and training of health informatics in Europe.

Information technology is a term which has been widely used for some years. It has little relation either to information theory which is concerned with the information content of signals, or to information studies which often describes activities with text based information. Information technology is an all-embracing term which is applied collectively to the use of the modern techniques associated with advanced computing systems and data communication. The goal of information technology therefore is to imagine and create the intellectual tools that can exploit these computing systems and data communication hardware (technology) and to give meaning to the data (information). In order to be able to use these information technology products education and training are necessary. Health informatics as a discipline covers the subject of information technology in health care. Health informatics is used here as a generic term, comprising medical informatics, nursing informatics, etc. Advances in information technology will have far reaching and major effects on education and