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 allocated