• The National Library of Medicine’s Medline contains more than 15 million citations and abstracts from more than 3,900 bio-medical journals.

• healthfinder; the official government gateway to consumer health information and referrals, maintains a database of 4,600 health-related publications, online resources, and government offices.

• NetWellness, an online health information service sponsored by the University of Cincinnati, Ohio State University, and Case Western Reserve University, offers 25 electronic books and 340 health magazines and journals, as well as original features pro-duced by faculty at the three institutions.

But is this flow of digital data really making us healthier, or is it merely overwhelming us? A growing number of policymakers, health care providers, and consumers believes information resources hold the key to improving the health care system. These advocates say that judiciously collected and effectively communicated information can help professionals provide better care, turn patients into enlightened consumers of health services, and ultimately enable individuals and communities to address some of the root causes of illness before professional intervention is required.

But much hard work remains to be done if we are to realize these goals. Among the issues we must address are the following:

• Content: Information for information’s sake is of little value. Health care professionals and consumers need well-crafted infor-mation that is both relevant to their needs and reliable.

• Changing Professional Roles: As health information moves out of the cloistered halls of medical libraries and doctors’ offices and into the public square, the role of the health professional is changing. To take full advantage of the opportunities the informa-tion revolution is creating, we must help health care providers redefine how they relate to their patients and the public at large.

• Help for Consumers: Policymakers increasingly are relying on consumers, armed with information, to use their leverage as purchasers of health services to induce improvements in the quality of care. But market forces alone may have little effect unless government, employers, and nonprofit institutions educate and support consumers to play this role, and fill in gaps where consumers still lack clout.

• Equity: As information technologies enable some people to become increasingly well-informed and self-reliant, others who lack access to information resources will find themselves at a disadvantage. New strategies will be needed to ensure that all Americans can reap the benefits of the Information Age health care system.

• Community-wide Collaboration: Americans have known for some time that prevention, screening, and education concerning healthy behaviors and other “wellness” strategies can dramatically improve health. We also recognize that such efforts are most effective when entire communities, not just the medical establish-ment, are engaged in them. Information technologies can help communities identify and act on their health needs; they can also enable health care providers, community institutions, and individuals to collaborate on health-enhancing projects.

These are challenges not only for the health care sector, but for institutions and individuals outside the health arena as well. This report describes some of the ways that new information tools could produce systemic changes in the health care arena. Its goal, in part, is to serve as a bridge between the health care sector, where many of these issues are well known, and the broader public—including people involved in building and using information networks—who may be much less familiar with them.

The report begins by describing in Section 1 why a growing number of policymakers, health care providers, and consumers believe that information-based strategies offer the best hope of addressing concerns about cost, quality, and access to health care. Section 2 explores some of the barriers that stand in the way of achieving information-driven improvements in health care. Section 3 describes the various steps that need to be taken to meet these challenges. Section 4 offers a glimpse at what the long-term future may hold for information technology and health. Finally, Section 6 suggests some resources for further study of this complex issue.

Index | Information | Challenges | Barriers | What's Needed | Afterword | Endnotes | Resources