Changes in health care: challenges for information system design

It is widely recognized that the systematic availability of medical care services is a vital component of the social network. Although particular political, cultural and economic factors lead to different strategic approaches in different countries, all are faced with balancing resource allocation against the perceived desirability of the results. In many countries the social urgency to address this issue has reached a critical status. All of the current changes and challenges in health care delivery are to a large extent being driven by these considerations. Information systems consisting of telecommunication and computing technologies will play a key role in supporting emerging delivery systems. The purpose of this brief paper is to identify the major themes within this complex network of considerations and to serve perhaps as a road map in on-going system design and evaluation efforts.