Reviews / 2016
Making IT work: harnessing the power of health information technology
Professor Robert Wachter · work from 2016 · published 2016
What this was
Review of how the NHS should digitise secondary care after earlier national IT programmes. It argued for clinical leadership, phased implementation, and interoperability rather than a single centrally built record.
Why it sits in the hub
Thirlwall's 2026 recommendation on harmonised systems, and HSSIB's findings on the electronic referral service, are the safety consequence of digitisation done unevenly.
Findings
Finding 1
Digitisation fails when it is treated as a procurement rather than a change in clinical work.
Recommendations in this hub
Paraphrase of the public recommendations, not the official text.
- 1Partly doneNHS England
Fund and phase hospital digitisation, with chief clinical information officers in post.
- 2Partly doneNHS England
Require systems to exchange data, rather than locking information inside one supplier.