Modernising healthcare - is the NPfIT for purpose.

This paper responds to the findings of the research by Currie and Guah on the introduction of the National Programme for Information Technology through an institutional theory perspective. It considers both the appropriateness and applicability of the method chosen in the light of what is already known about UK healthcare organisations and the complex and changing process that is involved in both the organisation and any research that takes place. This is further confounded by an unstable political environment both nationally and locally and a failure to understand the changing location, role and status of the medical record. Only when this is resolved will a transformational change occur, in line with the new patient-focused government agenda and the external world of technology that must engage with the emotional as well as the rational role that both technology and health play in people's lives.