See related editorial, p 75.

The greatest advances in medicine over the next two decades will result from application of the tools and principles of informatics to the problems of clinical medicine. New developments in medical informatics will drive advances in clinical care, administration, research, and education. Information flow in the emergency department a decade hence will be characterized by a transformation from a “hunter-gatherer” information model to a “publisher-subscriber” model in which the right information will always be available at the right time. In large part, information will be gathered automatically rather than manually. Computers will be ubiquitous and almost invisible. Invasive and attached monitoring and testing will yield to new remote and noninvasive technologies. Information will be shared and modified as needed, rather than recreated and reentered by each caregiver. Eventually, the use of information technologies in the emergency medicine workplace will enhance our traditional role as hands-on providers of direct patient care.

[Smith MS, Feied CF: The next-generation emergency department. Ann Emerg Med July 1998;32:65-74.]