Nancy Neville explores ‘the Year 2000 problem’, the potential for error in hospital information systems and electromedical equipment, and how it can be combatted

The health service, although always struggling to find enough funds to cover all of the services it supplies, is becoming more and more dependent on computers to hold patient records and audit research findings. However, it is the gathering, processing and the delivery of information that is the key to any information system. The computer is just an analytical tool (Proctor 1992).