Evaluating computerised health information systems: Opportunities were missed

Evaluating computerised health information systems: hard lessons still to be learnt.

Enormous investment has gone into computerised hospital information systems worldwide. The estimated costs for each large hospital are about $50m (£33m), yet the overall benefits and costs of hospital information systems have rarely been assessed. When systems are evaluated, about three quarters are considered to have failed, and there is no evidence that they improve the productivity of health...

Computerised neonatal information systems.

The oldest old: missed public health opportunities.

The fastest growing segment of our population is the “oldest old,” usually defined as those 85 years and older. In 2005, this group numbered more than 5 million persons, or about 1.7% of the US population, a 40% increase since 1990. Because the oldest old carry a greater burden of disease and disability, they account for a substantial proportion of health care spending, with total annual per ca...

Mental health information systems: problems and opportunities

Medical and nursing staff in acute specialities spend up to 25%of their working lives collecting, analysing, using and communicating information (Audit Commission, 1995). It is likely that staff delivering mental health care, which often involves services and staff based in a number of locations and inter-agency collaboration, spend just as much of their time on these activities. Despite this e...

Opportunities and Challenges in Evaluating Interactive Information Retrieval Systems

Information retrieval or search plays an important role in a wide range of information management and electronic commerce tasks. In spite of the importance of information retrieval, search systems are often poorly designed. The goal of this SIG is to articulate some of the opportunities and challenges in improving and evaluating highly interactive information retrieval systems. Author