This book sprang from a forum on interactive multimedia and health care held November 1992 in Washington, DC. The meeting was cohosted by the assistant secretary for health, head of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS), and the deputy assistant secretary for commerce, head of the National Technology and Information Agency (NTIA). The conference was sponsored by the PHS, NTIA, the National Demonstration Laboratory for Interactive Information Technology at the Library of Congress, The Interactive Multimedia Lab at Dartmouth Medical School, The Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development at MIT, AT&T, Bell Atlantic, MACRO International, and Picture Tel. Its purpose was to bring health policy makers and new media researchers together "to promote informed design, production, and use of multimedia for the promotion of health and prevention of disease." Rarely had representatives from these two domains interacted; the conference became a cross-cultural experience for many and, I believe, the breeding ground of new professional relationships.
There was, of course, a certain amount of enchantment in the conference air. Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development Corporation, participated from his Cambridge, Massachusetts, office via interactive television. For some participants, this was their first experience of real-time interactive teleconferencing. For the old hands, it was a thrill just to see the technology, ever flirting with failure, come through "just in time." Multimedia presentations, stapled and scotch-taped together behind the scenes, actually dazzled as intended. And, on occasion, technology wizards and health policy wonks crossed language and cultural divides to proclaim awe for each others' work.
The Forum on Interactive Multimedia and Health Care was not really . . .