[Evolution and current uses of telematics in medicine. Future prospectives of telemedicine]

The medical use of data transmission has become a basic element in the application of telecommunications to medical practice. Hence the development of medical telematics i.e. the application of socalled "telematics" derived from the combined use of information science and telecommunications in medicine. In historical terms the foundations for medical telematics were laid in Italy in 1935 with the creation of the International Radiomedical Centre in Rome and more recently with the direct and indirect application of telematics to the flight and medical staff of the Air Rescue Service planes as well as the use--in space medicine--of special sensors computer-recorders, telecameras, etc., for the collection and long-distance transmission of data on the behaviour of men and animals during long space missions over the past 20 years. Other recent techniques enabling the long-distance transmission of data required for the long-distance treatment of the sick are also reviewed with the emphasis on cardiology, neurology, radiology, radiodiagnosis, nuclear medicine, oncology, nephrology, ophthalmology, haematology, laboratory diagnosis, etc. There are many other objectives of supreme human and social value that efficiently organised medical telematics can attain to solve the many difficult problems involved in the gradual development of a truly effective health service for all.