The information-driven enterprise: managing the conflict between health processes and information governance

It might seem obvious that information is central to the provision of health services, but most providers have inherited process-centric approaches from an era that predates the availability of large amounts of electronic information. The importance of information is reflected in the prominence of the health informatics discipline. However, putting information at the centre of twenty-first century medicine requires: a greater understanding of the potential of technology; a common understanding of what information actually is; and ways of measuring whether proposed technical solutions of capable of delivering the information that clinicians, administrators and patients are going to require.