In September 1992 the Northern Territory Department of Health and Community Services (NTDHCS) hosted a workshop on Rural Health Information at Health House, Darwin. A discussion paper (Appendix 1) to inform and raise awareness of the issues was written and produced by the NTDHCS and was circulated to invited participants prior to the workshop. The two day workshop was attended by Departmental employees and representatives from community controlled Health Services (Appendix 2 ). At the end of the Workshop considerable progress had been made in identifying health information needs and also the weaknesses and inadequacies of the information systems in place in rural areas of the Northern Territory. It was recognised that existing systems largely failed to meet the needs of actual and potential users of health information at all levels from the community, community health centres, through local and District management, up to the Health Department's central Managers, planners and policy developers.