Physicians, Information Technology, and Health Care Systems: A Journey, Not a Destination

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Abstract
Two papers in this issue of JAMIA discuss computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and a third one discusses patient clinical information systems (PCISs), which often include CPOE. The first paper, by Ash and colleagues, simply reports the rate at which U.S. hospitals and their care providers are adopting physician order entry systems.1 The other two challenge the current push toward rapid adoption of CPOE and PCIS in the health care industry—Berger and Kichak,2 by challenging the evidence base for the push, and Ash et al.,3 by calling attention to many failure points that occur when rigid computer system designs meet the reality of really complex clinical systems.