In the face of a growing quantity of reports, information, surveys, statistics, descriptions and projections on so many aspects of the health and social system in our country, we are gradually becoming more and more aware of the limits of such contributions. As a simple example from the various national sources that are easy to access, one might cite all the institutional web sites and/or data banks such as the National Statistical Institute (Istat, see, for example, the Annuario statistico italiano 2006, recently published and available entire online); the Ministry of Health, the Italian Agency of Drug (Aifa); the Istituto Superiore di Sanità; the Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro; and the Interuniversity Consortium (Cineca - Arno Report). only subscribers can see the full article