This second volume to result from the Diebold Institute Infostructure Project focuses on the roles that information-based technology can play in improving our society's overall health and well-being and in solving the major current and anticipated future problems of the cost and quality of and access to health care. The work outlines the general problem of healthcare in the U.S. and then examines the possibilities and problems inherent in developing and implementing healthcare infostructures. Also provided are expert policy analyses comparing medical information systems in the U.S. with those in Japan and Europe. This book will be crucial to an understanding of the future potential of information systems in America's healthcare sector.