[On the role of clinical information system in near future]

Information and communication technology has been growing up so rapidly. But, we should not forget that what we call "information" implies "digital in format". The digitalized information is essential for transmitting, sharing by many people in real time, processing, fusing, and so on. Creating three-dimensional CGs from a set of large volume image data or doing curved reformation can be performed in a blink of an eye. Now, it is also easy for an operator to get to know the stiffness of the organ through a manipulator by using the power-feedback technology. Organic integration of a variety of medical information provide a new virtual reality world which is valuable space such as a collaboration work place in a operation field. This is one of a model of the information assisted operation system. Therefore, the reader can easily understand that once he get the digitalized information, all that is left is not the technique but the "sensibility". This article is designed for readers to get to know above-mentioned technical aspect and its applicable system. Finally, I believe that technologies regarding the medical information system could contribute to some activities in the surgery in near future.