[The concept of informatics applied to Soviet public health]

Development of integrated medical information systems (IMIS) was proposed as a main direction of health care informatization in this country. The IMIS are meant to function both on the out- and in-patient basis covering a region (city) with a population amounting to two hundred thousand. They are aimed primarily at providing information supply continuity for the prevention, diagnosis, and the treatment of diseases, and at establishing intercommunications between institutions, departments, physicians, and specialists. The IMIS may serve a data base to give objective information to higher administrative levels, and a basis for creating autonomous information systems intended to automate the work of a separate establishment (department, or physician). The IMIS may also be used to develop medical educational systems (teaching systems, biomedical data banks and data base for medical workers, reference-information service for the population), medical expert systems, and systems of scientific work provision. Expenses on the development and establishment of IMIS are estimated, and possible social sequelae of health care informatization are assessed.