Healthcare delivery is becoming increasingly complex. Healthcare practitioners routinely deal with a mass of novel medical information, yet they often cannot promptly access patient data and information as needed, compromising patient safety and the quality of the care they provide. There is an increasing demand by patients to be actively involved in their care, including in the management of their health records. Medical errors and adverse medical events are on the rise, and healthcare organizations are forever struggling to coordinate and integrate the activities of their various entities in order to ensure cost-effective and more efficient operations. Health reforms, legislative requirements, and the need to remain competitive continue to put pressure on healthcare executives to deliver quality service and returns on investments. One cannot gainsay the urgent need to address these issues, particularly in the context of the current pervasive milieu of very valuable innovations in information technology. This report examines the aforementioned and other issues germane to the applications of information technology in contemporary healthcare service delivery. It also discusses current trends in healthcare information systems, the barriers to and the challenges posed by their adoption, from the clinical, technical, human, management and other perspectives, and looks at the ways forward toward exploiting the immense opportunities provided the healthcare industry by the ever-increasing pace of progress in information technology.
