The term picture archiving and communications system (PACS) was initiated during the first International conference and workshop on the topic sponsored by The International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) in Newport Beach, California in 1982. The research and development (R&D) progress for PACS has been slow until 1988. The earlier PACS modules were mostly off the shelf components connected together to solve a very specific clinical problem. The three major players in PACS R&D are the European countries, United States of America, and Japan. For various reasons, the European coun tries concentrated in modeling and simulation, U.S.A. pre ferred in-house development or purchased PACS modules from a manufacturer, whereas Japan organized the PACS as a national project. Between 1989 and 1990 PACS R&D took a dramatic positive turn. Large scale P ACS projects were planned and some are of implementation, especially in newly con at various stages structed hospitals. Examples are the Hokkaido University, Japan; Hammersmith Hospital, United Kingdom; Social and Medical Center East (SMZO), Vienna, Austria; the U.S. Armed Force Medical Diagnostic Imaging Support (MDIS) project; and the UCLA Medical Plaza ambulatory care center. Another phenomenon is the organization of the EC-countries which provides a tremendous impetus for the European PACS R&D efforts. This book "Hospital Integrated Picture Archiving and Communication Systems: edited by Professor M. Osteaux and others is a direct product from these efforts.

This book summarizes the proceedings of the 10th international conference on Infonnation Pro cessing in Medical Imaging (IPMI-lO), held in June, 1987, in Zeist, The Netherlands. IPMI is a biennial conference, organized alternately in Europe and North America. The subject of the conference is the use of physics, mathematics, computer science, and engineering in the of medical images. The intent of the conference is to fonnation, processing and interpretation provide a forum where new ideas and results of research in medical imaging can be presented and amply discussed. Accordingly, the programme can comprise only a limited number of papers. The scientific committee of IPMI-lO selected 41 papers for presentation, although a total of 102 extended abstracts of on the average high quality had been submitted. All selected contri butions are included in these proceedings. During of the preparations of the conference the organizers received the tragic news of the death of Francois Erbsmann, the initiator of IPMI, and organizer of the first conference in 1969 in Brussels. Francois always emphasized that the backbone of the IPMI meetings should be promising young and active researchers rather than established scientists in the field. As an appreciation of this idea, and in thankful remembrance of Francois' stimulating work, the IPMI-board has taken the initiative to present the Francois Erbsmann prize for the most significant contribution to the conference by a young investigator.