Socialized medicine and other related systems of social welfare, such as the Medicare.and Medicaid programs in the United States, have helped make health care one of the major worldwide growth industries (62). International institutions, such as the World Health Organization, and national agencies, such as the US National Institutes of Health, have helped make generally acceptable and have propagated the concept of the individual's right to adequate medical care. Consequently, consumer use of health care providers has multiplied exponentially. Yet, with a few isolated but important exceptions, there is a shortage of well-trained physicians to meet the growing demand. Additionally, as medical knowledge expands and specialization becomes the norm, the number of people with access to the "proper" physician, particularly for treat­ ment of the more esoteric illnesses, becomes a smaller fraction of the world's population. Although there are many programs designed to produce more physicians and to train more paramedical staff to func­ tion at higher medical levels, there is still not enough available expertise. Burgeoning costs exacerbated by enormous inflation rates have made it even more difficult to provide medical care for all who need it. Among the world's population, the continuing reality is one of many unmet medical needs. For a number of years, scientists have dreamed of a care-giver, with a terminal by his side, in a fully computerized service environment. The computer is interposed to systematize and organize knowledge, to augment or control the collection of information, to provide logical support for decision making and, by monitoring progress, to act as an aide memoire. The concept, could it be implemented, would help put an