Business Process Re-engineering and the Development of Healthcare Information Systems

Research suggests that there is something seriously wrong with the cost/benefit equation of the implementation of information technology, showing that many organisations do not reap the benefits of their investment. The paper traces the postwar history of changes in the business environment for clues to this paradox. It looks at traditional system design methodologies to see how effectively they incorporate these changes into the process of designing new information systems and then examines the relationship between these methodologies and business process re-engineering (BPR). The main part of the paper examines the relevance of BPR to the UK National Health Service and describes some of recent projects and the benefits they have produced.