LAPAROSCOPIC SURGERY - TRANSITION TO THE FUTURE

The twenty-first century will usher in a fundamentally new approach to the practice of medicine. It will be based heavily on information tec hnologies, broadly defined as the devices that acquire information; th ose that process, transmit, and distribute information; and those that use information to provide therapy. Although conventional surgery wil l continue to have a presence, there will be radically different surgi cal approaches and technologies that may become the predominant form o f surgery. The medical record may become a three-dimensional visual re presentation of the individual patient (like the Visible Human Project ), which can be the vehicle that integrates the entire spectrum of hea lth care. Examples of the technologies and infrastructures that suppor t this new approach to medicine are discussed and illustrated, with em phasis on how technologies improve individual patient care.