Information management in healthcare - gaps and opportunities

Healthcare is one of the single largest areas of expenditure in many countries, and rapidly growing. There are increasing pressures resulting from the ageing of populations, consumer demand, new treatments and shortages of both professional and informal carers. Safety and quality of care is a major driver to improve management of health information which is often fragmented both within and between most healthcare providers. This paper reports on issues (of information management in healthcare, advances in eHealth, and ways of addressing the increasing challenges in healthcare through ICT; with a particular focus on the author's experiences in the Australian healthcare System.