Health Affairs

Health Affairs, 27, no. 5 (2008): w383-w390 (Published online 19 August 2008) doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.27.5.w383 © 2008 by Project HOPE	New Online   Getting Health Reform Done   After the State of the Union   Incremental Reform   E-Health in Developing World   Most-Read Articles in 2009

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Health Information Technology: A Few Years Of Magical Thinking?

Carol C. Diamond and Clay Shirky

One of the biggest obstacles to expanding the use of information technology (IT) in health care may be the current narrow focus on how to stimulate its adoption. The challenge of thinking of IT as a tool to improve quality requires serious attention to transforming the U.S. health care system as a whole, rather than simply computerizing the current setup. Proponents of health IT must resist "magical thinking," such as the notion that technology will transform our broken system, absent integrated work on policy or incentives. The alternative route to transforming the system sets all of its sights on the destination.

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