In front of us

The care of patients is an information-intensive activity in which a large number of decisions must be made. Through the support of more rapid, less expensive, and better decisions, workstations can contribute positively to the science, the art, and the economics of health-care. They have greatest potential value when they have access to a large amount of information relevant to the decisions which must be made jointly by patients and their care providers. Technological and psychological barriers to the acceptance of workstations are becoming increasingly surmountable. Workstations may increase patients' satisfaction with the care they are provided, reduce the total cost of care, and reduce the cost of clinical information to third parties, by economically enabling comprehensive, up-to-date, and accurate medical records from which information can be rapidly and cheaply extracted and made accessible to all who need to use it.