Clinical information systems (CIS) could drive progress in health care in the 21st century: information captured in a CIS could be used within a general "CIS research landscape" (described by us previously) to develop research projects that examine and potentially improve delivery of health care services. The CIS research landscape also identifies aspects of the care delivery system that must be addressed before quality of care can be improved. In addition, the CIS research landscape portrays

more »

... e research process and how it relates to operational aspects of health care delivery. In this article, we describe how we used the CIS research landscape in conjunction with known operational, financial, technical, governmental, and social constraints of Kaiser Permanente (KP) to develop a specific CIS research agenda. We identified four CIS research priorities: clinical decision support systems, population-based care systems, personal health record systems, and establishment of a functional baseline against which future CIS enhancement can be measured. These research priorities should help guide researchers so they can focus their time, effort, and money on important questions that will inform KP and other health care providers about the use of CIS to improve health care.