Review of Computerized Information Systems in the Health Area and Their Implication for Long-Term Care

Abstract

The first observation that I made in reviewing health information systems (HISs) was a strong correlation between the level on which an HIS is used for policy making, planning or management, and its classification according to the three following groups:

• 1. The agency who controls the HIS is also the one who uses the information it generates and, furthermore, provides the input to it. Many institution-specific management information systems fall in this category.

• 2. The agency who controls the HIS also uses the information it generates, but has little control over the data input providers. This category includes, for example, cancer registries which are usually controlled by the same researchers as analyse them but who depend on the goodwill of hospitals, laboratories and others to provide the input data needed to create and update the registers.

• 3. The agency who controls the HIS has little contact with the potential users of the information generated by it and furthermore has no control over the providers of data input to the system. This is by far the least desirable category.