This book has been written with the aim of providing an overview of the whole area of healthcare information so that readers can gain an understanding of the way in which health information and knowledge are created, communicated and used. It is, as we have seen, a particularly information-intensive domain, with an information-rich environment, in terms of the number and diversity of its information resources and communication pathways. It is also an area which is quite introspective in information terms, as we can see from the many journals, articles, and web resources devoted to health information, and the services which provide it.

This extensive health information literature is obviously a great advantage to the writer of a book such as this, as it means that the reader can be directed to it for detailed coverage of specific aspects. To have reproduced even a part of this material would have resulted in an impossibly long book, while to have ignored it would have made the book seriously incomplete.

To include links to a significant part of the health information literature, and to provide a reasonable range of examples of resources and services, runs the risk of producing a disorganized compilation, which would be difficult for the reader to comprehend fully. Some structuring is necessary if an explanation of this complex area is to be effective. In this book, this has been provided by the conjunction of three frameworks: domain analysis; communication chain; and the categorization of resources into levels. The author's hope is that this conjunction of frameworks has provided a helpful basis for the reader to gain a real understanding of the topic.

Keeping up to date

Healthcare information never remains static. At the time of writing, in the UK current issues included the absorption of the main NHS information provider, formerly the National Library for Health, into a new NHS Evidence service, with unclear consequences for many of its services. Controversy about the feasibility of the troubled implementation of an electronic medical record system intensified as a result of the problems caused by the economic downturn. Plans to allow patients greater choice of family doctor services were announced, leading to issues of need for information about doctors, and about transferability of medical records.