Abstract
The trend towards self-help healthcare is a social current which appears to run counter to the increasing technological complexity and sophistication of modern medical care. Yet it is the development of consumer-oriented high-tech medical devices which is facilitating this trend and which will permit the development of an electronics-based self-care system within the next ten years. Data on the present status of computer-assisted self-care was obtained from several sources, including a survey of homecomputer owners. Several useful software applications programs are currently in the marketplace; however, a data-integrating advice and referral program remains to be written. This development is seen as the last major technological impediment to the introduction of a complete microcomputer-based self-care system.