Health physics information management

The records that men have kept over the centuries have made the civilizations of man possible. Recorded history shows that our progress is closely correlated to man's ability to communicate recorded facts to others, and to effectively use knowledge gained by others. During the past few decades our ability to store and use information, and to reach larger audiences has grown dramatically. The advent of computers is discussed and their evolution to the state-of-the-art is described. Data bases, batch and on-line processing, centralized and distributed processing as well as other computer jargon are generally explained and examples are given as they apply specifically to health physics programs. It is proposed that systems designed to manage information cannot be adapted to health physics problems without extensive involvement of the HP who must use the computerized program. Specific problems which arise during the development of a computerized health physics program are explained