Implementing Health Care Information Systems

Abstract

The implementation of a health care information system requires three types of knowledge or experience. First, the implementors must know what the system is to do. This determination is tempered by both the needs and the requirements of the organization and the strategic direction the organization is taking. Second, there is a need to understand the generic issues that affect all health care information systems. Some of these issues are driven by legal requirements, others by ethical standards or long-established traditions of professional groups (eg, medicine, nursing, medical records, etc). Third, it is essential that the implementors be familiar with the methods and processes of computer and communication technologies and have a knowledge of where these technologies are heading.