Open, networked, integrated, multimedia, client/server behavioral healthcare.

Drawing upon the results of research from over 4,500 businesses that are now re-inventing themselves through the application of current information technology, the author envisions the informational characteristics of the behavioral healthcare enterprise of the future. The new technology will be open for all stakeholders in the healthcare system to interoperate, integrated between providers and facilities nationwide, decentralized, immediately accessible and continuously updating clinically useful information. Although the new information system architecture may not be fully implemented for another 10 to 15 years, the transformation is already well underway. New computer technology makes such a reinvention of the behavioral healthcare enterprise both possible and inevitable.