Health care in the information society: evolution or revolution?

This brief article is a commentary on the Haux et al. paper on Health Care in the Information Society: a prognosis for the year 2013. The commentary concentrates in particular on the underlying assumptions, which are at the core of the Haux et al. vision for healthcare in 2013. They assume that while there will be a shift towards increased patient-centred, community-based shared care, the underlying healthcare system will remain essentially the same. This commentary suggests that this is a conservative view and indeed questions its validity. Radical financial pressures to control costs as well as demands for equity fueled by more knowledgeable and better informed patients have the potential to bring about fundamental changes, with consequences for the way in which healthcare is delivered and in turn in how information and communications technologies are utilised.