E-HEALTH TRANSFORMATION: ACTION STEPS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

In the forward of the document "Web 2.0 in the Health Sector", Sir Muir Gray, Chief Knowledge Officer of the United Kingdom National Health Services, highlighted eight problems of the health care system today (Birnsteel, 2008), including: errors, poor patient experience, failure to adopt high value interventions, uncritically adopting low value interventions, waste, poor quality of care, unknowing variations in policy and practice, failure to recognize uncertainty, and ignorance. In health system transformation, we need to address at least these eight problems, and simultaneously improve health care accessibility, efficiency, quality, and patient experience.

IT can be one important bundle of solutions to revolutionize and improve the health care system, in particular when we choose to take advantage of its strong trends towards changing our existing health care culture. To achieve this cultural transformation in future health care delivery excellence and in addressing the issues highlighted by Sir Gray, we may consider improving the following five areas as our tactical beachheads: