[Use of the computer in clinical medicine]

This article describes the application of computers in clinical medicine and the experience gained by the Institute of Medical Computer Science when introducing computer systems into the clinics of the University of Vienna Medical School in the last 20 years. It is shown what dramatic development has taken place in these years. The medical information system WAMIS with its central patient database is described as well as the medical record keeping documentation and retrieval system WAREL, which is destined to analyze medical natural language data. A further chapter deals with computers in clinical laboratories. At the end it is tried to point out future trends in applying computers in clinical medicine.