Emergency medicine can play a leadership role in enterprise-wide clinical information systems

At many institutions, the department of emergency medicine is uniquely suit ed to a leadership role in the deployment of new clinical decision support systems (computer systems that support clinical practice). Many factors fav or such a leadership role, including institutional politics, organizational structure, extent of local control, clinician solidarity, openness to chan ge, departmental size and scale, and willingness to take risks. Such a role should be undertaken in partnership with the institution's information ser vices (IS) department, and a clear understanding of goals and responsibilit ies will facilitate such a partnership. A leadership position with respect to new information systems entails a certain risk, but the potential benefi t to an emergency department in today's competitive environment is substant ial. The authors' experience with one such collaborative development projec t is presented.