The widespread availability of information and communication technology offers new possibilities for education of professionals and of patients. One of these possibilities is computer assisted learning.1 Ten years ago, research focused on the development of computer assisted diagnosis and text based help to rheumatologists and others.2 Despite the initial enthusiasm about artificial intelligence (AI), resulting in several diagnostic expert systems, in routine care a precise diagnosis is rarely an important issue and as a consequence these systems are hardly used. The experience with expert systems, however, evolved into systems intended for educational purposes. “AI/Learn”, based on the “AI/Rheum” expert system and exploiting a videodisk with an image library, proved to be an effective means of teaching rheumatology.3 The same image library was used to teach occupational and physical therapy students with the “HP-Rheum” system (HP: Health Professionals).4 In recent years the introduction of sound, images, and movies on PCs, and the replacement of videodisks by CD-ROM facilitated production and access to these methods. The products resulting from the AI/Rheum project are not yet available on this medium, but two European rheumatologists have now completed educational systems on CD-ROM. They are to be honoured for their pioneering efforts. The main characteristics of the systems are summarised in table 1, details are discussed below.

The widespread availability of information and communication technology offers new possibilities for education of professionals and of patients. One of these possibilities is computer assisted learning.1 Ten years ago, research focused on the development …