A Viewpoint on the Medical Information Infrastructure in Austria

Abstract

Though Austria has a famous library tradition documented by its many monastery-libraries, along with a well developed library infrastructure (http://info.uibk.ac.at/c108/obib.html#w) with many modern libraries and a modernelectronic infrastructure http://www.bibvb.ac.at/verbund-opac.htm),  it must be said that the medical information infrastructure as a whole cannot be compared to that which may be found in the Anglo-American or Scandinavian framework. In addition, in a small country with single funding resources mostly from the state and/or regional federal boards, highly regulated market traditional requirements for developing a proactive and dynamic information infrastructure in money-intense specialities are far from ideal. Most of these rely on medical and clinicalr esearch too.