Evolving technologies: a planner's challenge in the information age.

Although strategic planning is now a familiar process for most hospitals, the probable impact of new technology on the hospital and society is frequently overlooked. This technology is transforming medicine into a quantitative science and is providing a multitude of new information. Effective management of this information is vital to continued quality medical care. This article addresses the impact of new technologies not as an individual event but as an influence on the health care community and society as a whole.