Information strategy in the NHS: issues and challenges.

Abstract

There has been considerable discussion of the nature and scope of information that purchasers and providers must acquire and use in the post-review NHS. Somewhat surprisingly, this has not been complemented by discussion of the potential for computer systems to support information management. This in spite of the publication of the NHS Information Management and Technology Strategy, which seems set to shape the way in which purchasers and providers manage data into the next century, and expenditure on computer systems which will be in the order of hundreds of millions of pounds over the next few years. Discusses some of the key challenges involved in implementing an IT infrastructure across the NHS, and identifies five issues which will substantially determine the success of the strategy.