ABSTRACT
Is your organization prepared for 2001 and beyond? Information technologies (ITs) dominate some of the newest breakthroughs in health care. Computer-based patient records (CPRs), wireless systems, the World Wide Web, virtual patient records (VPRs), telemedicine, and ehealth were all unknown to the health care industry a mere 20 years ago. Until very recently, information management consisted of processing a paper-based patient record, gleaning information, and communicating it in arduous, time-consuming, and labor-intensive ways. Is emerging information technology really necessary to be competitive in the health care industry? What factors determine health care ITs' current and future directions?
