Information technology in epidemiology

Information technology (IT) has been available for many years but recent developments have provided new opportunities. All areas of science can and will benefit greatly from the further development of information technology over the next few years. As with other new technologies, or accelerated developments of existing technologies, IT will provide most benefit when adapted appropriately to the existing tools available for the conduct of science investigations. Time will provide the answer to whether the recent IT developments described here will revolutionalize plant pathology on the same scale as previous developments such as those in microscopy and molecular biology.