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In the NHS, information technology has so far been perceived mainly as a management tool of little clinical relevance. Professional concern that inappropriate computerisation may harm patient care partly explains this, but the main reason is that NHS policies have given much higher priority to investment in systems for management and administration. By contrast, the new information management and technology (IM&T) strategy for the NHS in England is" person centred," and patients should benefit directly.[1] As the strategy is realised the information required for management win increasingly come from clinical computer systems. Because it sets clinical objectives for information technology in the NHS the strategy is to be welcomed.

The new strategy is described in more than 40 separate publications, although no single clear statement of it appears. The handbook for the specialists in information management and …