The potential role of physicians in the management of hospital information systems.

The centralized management of manual and automated information systems in hospitals, including the medical record, is usually delegated to administrators rather than to physicians. It is also likely that the importance of automated information systems will increase rapidly as the medical record is electronified. Many significant changes have occurred in recent years relating to the manner in which information systems are managed in hospitals. To address the challenge of this new information environment, hospital Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) have begun to create a new executive hospital position called the Chief Information Officer (CIO). CIOs are included in the hospital executive cabinet and commonly direct all hospital information systems, telecommunications, and management engineering. Although the model of the physician-director of an information system is common at the departmental level with the Laboratory Information System as one example, physicians rarely serve within the central hospital administration as information specialists such as the CIO. Although many physicians would be suitably qualified to serve in this capacity, another option for them would be the position of Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) with responsibility for utilization review, medical records, and quality assurance. The CMIO would serve centrally on a part-time basis, continuing to practice simultaneously in a medical specialty. The medical information specialist must not be insulated from the flow of clinical information and discourse with medical colleagues because of the increasing use of information systems for improving work efficiency and the pursuit of quality goals.