Dr W J Jenkins In 1977 when the Sheffield Transfusion Centre took delivery of the first GROUPAMATIC blood grouping machine in the UK it was equipped with a sample identification system involving complicated and expensive disposable punched cards. In fact, the cards were so expensive that Dr Wagstaff was unable to find the revenue to support the system. A year later, when Brentwood took delivery of a GROUPAMATIC, we were faced with the same problem, but by chance we heard that KONTRON was developing a laser scanning system for bar code labels and we were able to have our machine modified. Subsequently the Sheffield machine was altered to take the bar code scanner. At about the same time the Bristol Centre was helping TECHNICON with the development of the AUTO GROUPER C-16, and fortunately they decided on a laser reader of the same type for bar code identification. Thus there were three centres with the capability for reading bar codes on blood grouping machines and it became necessary to find someone to produce the bar code labels. There was only on~ printer in the UK who could produce labels to the required specification. To cut the costs of printing, and in the hope of avoiding a wide variation in codes, I invited representatives of centres interested in the problem to a meeting, where we set up what we called the Group of Six. This later became an official Working Party of the Regional Transfusion Directors.

In the autumn of 1980, the decision was made by the responsible bodies of the German Society for Medical Documentation, Informatics and Statistics (Deutsche Gesellschaft fUr Medlzinische Dokumentation, Informatik und Statistik e.V.) to make the application of computers in blood banking and blood transfusion one of the topics to be treated at the 8th spring conference of this Society, which was then arranged to take place in TUbingen from April 9-11, 1981. The goal of the con ference was to unite application specialists and methodologists in order to assess current achievements and identify fields needing further improvement. We were fortunate to obtain the interest of the German Society for Blood Transfusion and Immunohaemat6logy D~. Roos, the head of the EDP Work study group of the Section 1 of this. Society did substantially influence the programme. Many of the papers actually reflect accomplish ments of his research and of the work study group. We also consider ourselves fortunate to win Prof. C. Mueller-Eckhardt, current president of this Society, to give an introductory address.

The European Federation for Medical Informatics is a regional coordinat ing body. The Congress in Dublin. MIE 82. from 21st to 25th March 1982. is the fourth in the series following MIE 78 in Cambridge. MIE 79 in Berlin. There was a break in 1980 for the World Congress - MEDINFO 8- in Tokyo. This was followed by MIE 81 in Toulouse. The rationale behind these congresses is the scientific need to share results and ideas. and the educational need to train a wide variety of professional staff in the potential of Medical Informatics in health care delivery. All the caring professions are involved. doctors. scientists. nurses. pharma cists. paramedical staff. administrators. health care planners. commu nity physicj-US'I,!Dedical educationalists. epidemiologists. statisti cians. o. pe-~atio'ns 'analysts. together with specialists from the comput ing profession dealin~ with systems analysis. hardware. software. lan guages. data ba, s~s and marketing of systems. The pre-publi~~tion of'conference proceedings from a multi-stream con ference is partic~l~t~y valuable in a rapidly expanding multidisciplin ary field su~h as'M~dical Informatics. It enables participants to fol low work presented at sessions that they are unable to attend. More im portantly. is also provides a permanent record with relevant bibliogra phy for other workers to assess which groups are active and in which areas. All the papers have been refereed and the referees' suggestions incorporated in the final texts. Rapid publication. using camera-ready copy. reduces the time available for editing and indexing.

With this symposium the Red Cross Blood Bank Groningen-Drenthe affirms its well known reputation as an organizer of symposia of high standard and quality. Several important aspects of bloodbanking have been discussed in the past. The Blood Bank here is a specialist in its own field. Administrative processes in respect of the donor, information processes, the preparation of the blood and the laboratory process are automatized. New developments in these fields are undeway that you will certainly identify and investigate. I do hope that you will come to conclusions from which we can learn and get better results. As general manager of the Development and Investments Company for the Northern Netherlands - NOM - for several reasons I am very much interested in the outcome of this symposium. In the first place I am proud that the Red Cross Blood Bank Groningen Drenthe is doing its utmost to be excellent in regard of research, education and bloodprocessing. In being so, the Blood Bank can produce spinn-offs for healthservices and the related industry.