II. CURRENT USE OF IT IN HEALTHCARE
Current literature on the deployment of information systems
in the health care sector shows that most organizations are al-
locating a relatively small amount of resources toward informa-
tion systems. In fact, one study showed that the health care in-
dustry was generally spending only about 2% of its revenues
on technology, while other industries generally average around
10% [1]. This study was echoed by another article [2] showing
that the health care sector still lagged behind the financial in-
dustry, the telecommunication industry, and the airline industry
in terms of the implementation of information technology.
Spinning off of the lack of resource allocation is the finding
that the health care industry is lagging behind in terms of
e-commerce applications. One study of American health care
providers showed that while 92% of health care professionals
surveyed had informational Web sites, only 20% were partic-
ipating in extranets or supply chain networks, and only 15%
were currently offering enterprise portals [3]. The general
reluctance of the health care industry to adopt IT change, is also
highlighted in a study of health care in the United Kingdom [4].
This study shows that while general practitioners were using
computers as a part of their daily routine, only 19% of general
practitioners in the U.K. were currently linked to NHSnet, a
government sponsored network that can be used to link all of
the country’s general practitioners into central databases via
voice, data, and mobile communication media [4]. Although the
current use of information systems in the health care industry
is minimal, there has been a push to allow information systems
to play a more intricate role in health care. This is evidenced
by research showing that the percentage of resources allocatedto IT is increasing from the before mentioned 2% to more like
5%–7% [5].
The increase is mainly attributed to those organizations that
utilize information technology from a primarily administrative
perspective, using transaction processing systems and manage-
ment information systems, to support billing processes and pa-
tient records [6]. This trend is changing as many health care or-
ganizations are now starting to use information systems for clin-
ical purposes to improve patient care [7]. The various clinical
purposes involve physician-to-physician communication to dis-
cuss difficult treatments, and share common knowledge. Also,
more and more physicians are beginning to directly communi-
cate with their patients via e-mail. An AOL survey revealed that
33% of surveyed physicians were currently using e-mail to com-
municate directly with their patients [8].
In addition to utilizing administrative systems and some
clinical communication, current health care organizations are
also using the Web to disseminate information about their orga-
nizations. Most of these sites are simply used as an information
medium, and are not highly interactive or personalized, but
some are being used in disease management, to reach out and
monitor patients diagnosed with chronic illnesses [9].