Addressed to health care professionals, this book looks beyond traditional information systems and suggests how to bring a competitive advantage to hospitals and other health care providers. Speaking practitioner to practitioner, the authors explain how they use information technology to manage their health care institutions and to support the delivery of clinical care. The second edition incorporates the far-reaching advances of the last several years which has moved the field of health informatics from the realm of theory into practice. Major new themes in the field, such as a national information infrastructure and community networks, guidelines for case management, and community education and resource centers added. Topics such as clinical and blood banking have been thoroughly updated.