COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM January 2006/Vol. 49, No. 1 51
Personal information management (PIM) pervades every
aspect of our lives, including health care. As users of the
health care system, we rely on our ability to manage information
to combat illness and stay healthy. When seeking
help for a health-related problem or question, we navigate a
complex system where health services are distributed across
multiple clinicians in a variety of specializations and institutions.
Within the system, efforts to reduce costs have limited
the time clinicians are able to spend with patients.