Clinical goals drive paperless hospital's IT choices

Designing an all-digital hospital needs to involve more than just selecting the right technology, said the IT lead for a new, paperless academic medical center being planned in Denmark. There need to be clear clinical goals instead of "technology for technology's sake," according to Jonas Hedegaard Knudsen, chief IT consultant for the new hospital in the works at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. The new hospital, to cover about 2.3 million square feet of floor space, will be 20% to 30% smaller than the building it will replace, according to Knudsen, so design and workflows will both have to be more efficient.