Health Information and Health Reform: Understanding the Need for a National Health Information System (JOSSEY BASS/AHA PRESS SERIES) - Hardcover

To achieve reform in the health care system, it is necessary to understand its complexity and what forces created the current crisis. Information technology--computers and communications technology--is the ideal tool to accomplish this goal.Health Information and Health Reform describes how the problems underlying today's health care crisis can be solved through information technology and how technology can redirect these underlying forces to prevent future crises. The author uses a systems approach to make the vital connection between the problems of the health care system, the solutions, and the need to move the system into the information age.In the first non-technical book on the subject, Karen Duncan urges health care professionals and decision makers to take the lead in health care reform and use information technology as the basis for envisioning their roles in the system's transformation and in the new, evolved system. She describes how information technology can be a positive force for the whole health care system if it is shaped by the professionals it serves.The book contains an extensive Information Resources section for additional information on health policy and information technology in health care.

The myriad problems underlying today's health care crisis are described in detail in this comprehensive study. The author discusses how these problems can be solved through information technology, and how the same technology can be used to prevent future crises.