Published by the international Electrotechnical Commission and the International Standardization Organization

3 rue VarembC Geneva 20, Switzerland 744 pages. Price 60 Swiss Fr.

Until now health technology as a field with divergent interests and disparate elements suffered from not having a single 'Source-book where these elements are united. A recent joint IEC/ISO publication covering this field goes a long way to producing a solution.

This book establishes the state of the art in health technology, and, as the authors point out, will serve as a foundation for defining not only present but also future needs for associated standards and quality assurance in the complex field that health technology has become.

The book is the result of a congress held in Ireland which brought together experts from all areas of the field: engineers, physicians, hospital architects i surgeons, physicists and electronic specialists and experts from other related professions. The book focuses on the latest developments and standards in the domain of.. (i) the role of health technology in the delivery of health care, (ii) international standards in health technology, (iii) regional and national standardization, (iv) the European approach (1992), and (v) the application of quality assurance systems to health technology. It covers research, manufacture, certification, installation and application of equipment used in health care, including medicine, surgery and dentistry, as well as special aspects of health care standardization in the areas of biological safety and bio-compatibility.

The objective of standards in health technology is to "maintain quality and ensure the safety of the patient, of the equipment, of the care provider and of the environment in which such health service is delivered."

The book is aimed at all the international health technology communities devoted to Standards and Safety in Health Care.