The growth of medical information systems in the United States

The Growth of Medical Information Systems in the United States. Donald A. B. Lindberg. Lexington, Massachusetts, Lexington Books, D.C. Heath and Company, 1979, 194 pp. This book is the extension of a report by the National Academy of Sciences that was prepared for the Committee on Technology and Health Care. In its nine chapters, the author begins by delimiting his subject matter to the United States and defining a table of criteria for comparing MIS installations. He then proceeds through the historical development of some of the major systems in the United States and gives a current update on the growth or lack of growth of each project. He states that the university and academic form of MIS development has outpaced that of commercial investors and devotes a chapter to the future changes to the MIS technology that will eventually augment all current investments. The last two chapters deal with the development of MIS technology and some of the severe limitations placed on our current research efforts. The conclusions may be incompletely summarized as follows: