Medical research and clinical practice will benefit form real time access to supercomputers, direct interaction with other researchers and clinicians, and the ability to transmit images and other large data files in a real time mode. This will be made possible by the High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) Project and the National Research and Education Network (NREN)> The availability and description of these capabilities needs to be made known to the medical informatics community. The conference theme, together with the published abstracts of the presentations, is designed to accomplish this objective. This conference will bring together policy level representatives from the numerous constituencies which are essential for the design, development, deployment, and operation of a robust, high performance computer network to meet pressing needs for improved research collaboration and productivity in the United States.
