The representation and use of clinical knowledge through healthcare information systems in the UK National Health Service

Strategic management of healthcare systems depends on useful information as derive from clinical data. The paper asserts that this is flawed because of the nature of clinical reality, and consequently, of clinical data describing that reality. The paper is based on current research into the nature of and relationships between, knowledge, data and information in the context of clinical practice within the UK National Health Service (NHS). It focuses on the relationship between the generation and use of clinical knowledge, and the large-scale statistical data sets which are generated from that knowledge via a number of human, technological, systemic and mathematical processes. The research has been carried out through extensive qualitative field based investigation with clinicians in their operating environments.