SALUTIS UNITAS, Unity for Health, an organization ‘Uniting physicians of the world to foster better health for all people through international exchange of technological information’, was officially founded in 1972 after preceding years of preparation. One of its main objectives is the scientific communication, be it by meeting or by publications. So several scientific meetings could be held, mostly together with other scientific organizations, and resulted in the publication of the respective proceedinqs 1. Studies were commissioned 2 to investigate trends in health care delivery and their socio-economic consequences, which also provided the basis for further investigations 3. So also in 1978 an international congress was organized by SALUTIS UNITAS and sponsored by the international Menarini Foundation under its directorship of Dr. Gorini. This volume is based on the contributions of SALUTIS UNITAS mewbers of this meeting ‘Man and his World, Technology and Health’, supplemented by further studies and materials. The main objective was to look at various recipients of health care delivery: the individual, the community, the region and the nation. Emphasis was placed on systems analysis, simulation techniques and evaluation. According to the composition of the SALUTIS UNITAS membership, conceptual and interdisciplinary aspects prevail over descriptions of in-depth methodology,thus providing a broad access to the problems investigated. For the Editors Amonqst others see: Mas~, E., Collen, ~.F., Gorini, S. (Eds): The Computer in Health Care Systems in Some European Countries and in the United States (Piccin, Padua 1976).