Title Page -- Table of Contents -- Opening Session 1 -- World Review -- The European overview -- Healthcare Chip Card Technology in North America -- The Prospects of Health Cards in Asia -- Opening Session 2 -- Can Medical Informatics Deliver? - How Useful is the Present Communication Infrastructure in Health Care? -- International Harmonisation of Healthcards -- Parallel Session 1. Policy and countrywide implementation (part I) -- Information systems in healthcare Situation in France -- German Patient Cards - From administrative to medical data - - Harmonization and Standards - -- Introduction of Health Cards within the Italian National Healthcare System -- Health Card Initiative in '98 and Vision for the Future -- NETLINK: a co-ordinated action to ensure implementation of interoperable data cards systems and Intranet solutions in France, Germany, Italy and Canada -- Parallel Session 2. Expert session - Interoperability and standardisation -- Statements for the round table discussion -- Parallel Session 3. Policy and countrywide implementation (part II) -- National Identification Card and Health Card Project in Korea -- Introducing the card technology in the Slovene health care system -- Project "MACHA"--Health card pilot apppplication in the Czech Republic Progress and development -- The Spanish social security smart card project TASS Project) -- Introduction of Health Cards in Norway -- Parallel Session 4. Financial aspects of card projects -- Economics of Chip Cards in Health Care: Insurance Cards and Electronic Prescriptions -- Data under a fingertip: benefits of a smart card in health care -- A useful ASSESSMENT for decision makers -- Cost-effective solution for Health Cards using an interoperable mixture of memory and processor chips -- Parallel Session 5. Confidentiality and security