Interventions to increase the use of electronic health information by healthcare practitioners to improve clinical practice and patient outcomes.

Abstract

In a 2004 discussion paper, the WHO asked if universal access to health information could be achieved by 2015, on the premise that limited access to information was a major obstacle to knowledge-based healthcare in both developing and industrialized countries. There is unquestionably a large volume of electronic health information available to healthcare practitioners, and there is evidence to suggest that the application of health information to patient care may improve patient and clinical outcomes. Despite this abundance of information, suboptimal care is common; thus it is important to determine how to encourage practitioners to use electronic health information to inform patient care.