Keeping data healthy

A new approach to healthcare informatics should lead the way to a more reliable, safer sector - and might also be the spearhead that brings Web 2.0 to the hospital bedside. According to the UK Health Informatics Society, the term 'health/healthcare informatics' is replacing the previously more common term 'medical informatics'. This reflects a concern to define an agenda for health services that "recognises the role of citizens as agents in their own care, as well as the major information-handling roles of the non-medical healthcare professions".