
Summary | 107
THE FUTURE OF NI
The future of NI will impact and be impacted by several driving trends. These in-
clude (1) changes in society, such as the aging population, the AIDS epidemic, or
the increased use of participatory and mobile technology; (2) changes in health
care delivery including the changing and expanding role of nursing within health-
care delivery; and (3) changes in technology, such as nanotechnology, which
promises to redefine the composition of nearly every man-made material and
drastically alter biomedical applications (Alivisatos, 2001).
All of these changes will drive increased saturation of informatics concepts and
solutions ...