Moving to an Information Technology–Driven Health Care Environment

Abstract

Do you remember when 2020 was the date used as the distant future when our lives would be totally transformed by the technologies that were going to be part of our daily routines? Do you recall that Popular Science magazine predicted in the 1950s that our biggest problem in the year 2000 would be the crowded airspace from our personal helicopters? Who was the thought leader who said no household in America would buy a computer or need one? We believe there are funny predictions that were made years ago that haven't yet come to fruition. We are also convinced that health care is rapidly becoming primarily information technology-driven, including big data, little data, and some pretty exciting technologies that are rapidly emerging and are already beyond the “showing promise” stage.