Sustainable health care systems. Findings from the section on sustainable health care systems.

OBJECTIVES To summarize major current trends and research in the field of sustainable health care systems. METHOD Synopsis of the articles selected for the IMIA Yearbook 2007. RESULTS Four excellent articles, four nations and four international peer-reviewed journals representing some important aspects of the research in this field have been selected for the IMIA Yearbook 2007. The first paper focuses on health care spending and use of information technologies in OECD countries; the second paper presents an original model and framework to describe and evaluate the risks and safety of e-health systems; the third paper, a two-part paper, reviews several models to support lifetime personal health records and proposes some original approach to this problem. Finally, the last paper presents the evaluation of feasibility, potential, problems and risks of an Internet-based telemedicine network in developing countries of Africa and challenges and opportunities that IT can bring to developing countries. CONCLUSIONS Sustainability in health care and information technologies is a young but fast growing domain. This new section of the yearbook is promised to a rich future as illustrated in the variety and the importance of the challenges addressed by this 2007 selection.