Data in Medicine: Collection, Processing and Presentation

Nowadays clinical medicine is to a great extent dependent on techniques and instrumentation. Not infrequently, instrumentation is so complicated that technical specialists are required to perform the measurements and to process the data. Interpretation of the results, however, generally has to be done by physicians. For proper interpretation of data and good com- munication with technical specialists, knowledge of, among other things, principle, advantages, limitations and applicability of the used techniques is necessary. Besides, this knowledge is required for critical comparison of systems to measure a certain variable. Critical evaluation as well as com- parison of techniques and instruments ought to be an essential component of medical practice. In general, basic techniques and instrumentation are not taught in medi- cal schools nor during residencies. Therefore, physicians themselves have to collect practical information about principle, advantages and limitations of techniques and instruments when using them in clinical medicine. This practical information, focussed on the specific techniques used in the various disciplines, is usually difficult to obtain from handbooks and manufacturers' manuals. Hence a new series of books is started on instru- mentation and techniques in clinical medicine.