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Information Technology Outside Health Care

What Does It Matter to Us?

Lexical Technology, Inc., Alameda, California.

Corresdpondence and reprints: Mark S. Tuttle, Chief Technology Officer, Lexical Technology, Inc., 1000 Atlantic Avenue, Suite 106, Alameda, CA 94501-1147. e-mail: <tuttle{at}lexical.com >.

Received for publication: 04/19/99; accepted for publication: 05/24/99.

Non-health-care uses of information technology (IT) provide important lessons for health care informatics that are often overlooked because of the focus on the ways in which health care is different from other domains. Eight examples of IT use outside health care provide a context in which to examine the content and potential relevance of these lessons. Drawn from personal experience, five books, and two interviews, the examples deal with the role of leadership, academia, the private sector, the government, and individuals working in large organizations. The interviews focus on the need to manage technologic change. The lessons shed light on how to manage complexity, create and deploy standards, empower individuals, and overcome the occasional "wrongness" of conventional wisdom. One conclusion is that any health care informatics self-examination should be outward-looking and focus on the role of health care IT in the larger context of the evolving uses of IT in all domains.

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