Writing a collective volume on information systems in medicine from the temporal
perspective has been a big challenge to us for a number of reasons. One reason
was the growing interest in time-oriented aspects coming from different research
communities, inspired by different research issues and problems. A second reason
that is not unrelated to the first was the diverse and multidisciplinary nature of the
various aspects of temporal information systems in medicine. A third reason was to
attempt to strike a balance between the theoretical and methodological issues on one
hand, and the challenging aspects of developing applications that can deal with reallife,
time-oriented medical problems, on the other hand. A final reason was that such
a book, as we envisioned it, simply did not exist. Given the growing work in the field
and its significance, we considered the presence of such a book a necessity for giving
a uniform integration, under a common umbrella, of the areas of research impinging
on temporal information systems in medicine; that is we felt that the absence of such
a book was a hindrance to someone wishing to get an overall acquaintance or to be
updated on the various matters that arise in this interdisciplinary field.