The sad news is here: Professor Jean-Raoul Scherrer passed away in the night of 19 March 2002. Our distinguished colleague and friend was suffering from a cancer since the end of last year. He was worthy, lucid and strong until the last moment. He was 69 years old.

Professor Jean-Raoul was active in the domain of Medical Informatics since 1967. He was the founder and director of the DIOGENE system. He always was a leader with a bright vision, strong projects and infinite energy for every action. At the end of his life, he was the head of the Health On the Net (HON) foundation, emphasizing patient empowerment, once again in advance with a new idea.

In November 2000, Professor Scherrer received the Morris F. Collen Award, the highest distinction in the domain of medical informatics. A video of this event is made available on a web server. During the past EFMI Council meeting, Professor Scherrer was elected Honorary Fellow of EFMI. EFMI will honour Professor Jean-Raoul Scherrer during the next MIE'2002 conference in Budapest.

The funeral will be on Monday 25 March 2002. A book of honour is open on this website with the collection of all the messages that we have collected in the memory of Jean-Raoul Scherrer. You can contribute if you wish by sending me a message, very short or longer, as you prefer. All messages will be transmitted to the family. In the Award section there is an excellent article of Charlie Safran in the honour of our common friend Jean-Raoul. We are sad today, but this paper gives us a lesson of a very active life. The best we can do to honour the name of Jean-Raoul is certainly to follow his example and to continue the work.

For the Division of Medical Informatics,
Robert Baud