Medicine and mobility: challenge for the next century

Advances in air traffic are the key factors that have enabled society during the present century to change from local orientation to globalization. At the end of the 20th century, millions can individually travel across continents into different cultures, climates, environments, and reach their destination within hours or, if it is real remote, in a few days. Advances in telecommunication and informatics technologies have furthermore allowed us to be in contact in real time wherever on, below or above earth s surface humans are. These progresses influence all aspects of human life. They also bring numerous chances, challenges and problems for medicine. Therefore, the different aspects of increased mobility should be viewed in a concerted fashion, that integrates all aspects of medicine that are influenced by the increased mobility of society. This new field of medicine, "Medicine and Mobility", will have a central role to fulfill the main task of medicine during the next century, namely to make individualized medicine possible, i.e. to bring individualized medical expertise to the patient, wherever he/she may be. This will end the present expertise-oriented medicine of the 20th Century, in which the patient has to come to the special expertise. This change of medical practice will have huge impacts not only on medicine, but on economies, cultures and be one of the driving forces for our main task of the next century, to peacefully unite our whole globe.