• Helga Rippen.
• Science & Technology Policy Institute, RAND Corporation, Washington, DC, USA.
• Stud Health Technol Inform. 2003 Jan 1; 92: 103-8.

AbstractDespite the increasing role of information technology in health care, its use still lags behind that occurring in other sectors. Factors contributing to this include the complex health care environment and conflicting political agendas. Building political support for information technology in health care depends on understanding the importance of stakeholders and the environment in which they operate. It is important to involve stakeholders early in the process of implementing new information technology in order to identify needs, barriers, and non-starters. Understanding the historical experience of the community and its past attempts at using information technology is also important. Quality of care issues, nursing shortages, cost control concerns, health insurance costs and coverage rates, institutional solvency, and overwhelming paperwork are current problems in the healthcare environment that can hinder willingness to invest in information technology. Ironically, information technology can also help remedy these problems. Impact on workflow, privacy of personal health information, and system reliability, interoperability, and the ease of updating the system can all have political ramifications with regard to acceptance and implementation of information technology.

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