Health care professional workstations: where are we now? ... where should we be tomorrow?

This article looks back over four years during which major changes have occurred in healthcare informatics, both technically and from a policy perspective. A remarkable portion of what medical-informatics professionals were proposing in 1989 has subsequently come to pass. Thus, one lesson from reflections on the recent past is that now is the time for us to devise realistic expectations of what we will see happen in the next four years. Possible scenarios for the future are outlined, as are suggestions for how the informatics community might best prepare for what lies ahead.