Quality assurance and medical information processing.

Quality assurance of medical care is a process designed to improve quality of health care delivery by eliminating deficiencies. Since every quality assurance process starts with the assessment of quality and the recognition of deficiencies, quality assurance is in the first place a problem of information: if one does not know the inadequacy of the own care, one has no idea that it should be improved. Therefore, appropriate quality indicators differentiating between good and bad medical care and functioning information systems with or without computers are basic prerequisites for the assurance of quality. Additionally, external comparisons of the hospital's own data with the data of other hospitals stimulate the efforts of quality assurance committees. Computer based hospital information systems may be valuable tools to support quality assurance processes. However, further research and development of quality monitoring systems, practicable medical and economical quality indicators, and decision supporting techniques will be necessary to meet all requests of the quality assurance professionals.