RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Information technology for patient safety JF Quality and Safety in Health Care JO Qual Saf Health Care FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd SP i25 OP i33 DO 10.1136/qshc.2009.038497 VO 19 IS Suppl 2 A1 Christopher Huckvale A1 Josip Car A1 Masanori Akiyama A1 Safurah Jaafar A1 Tawfik Khoja A1 Ammar Bin Khalid A1 Aziz Sheikh A1 Azeem Majeed YR 2010 UL http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/19/Suppl_2/i25.abstract AB Background Research on patient care has identified substantial variations in the quality and safety of healthcare and the considerable risks of iatrogenic harm as significant issues. These failings contribute to the high rates of potentially avoidable morbidity and mortality and to the rising levels of healthcare expenditure seen in many health systems. There have been substantial developments in information technology in recent decades and there is now real potential to apply these technological developments to improve the provision of healthcare universally. Of particular international interest is the use of eHealth applications. There is, however, a large gap between the theoretical and empirically demonstrated benefits of eHealth applications. While these applications typically have the technical capability to help professionals in the delivery of healthcare, inadequate attention to the socio-technical dimensions of their use can result in new avoidable risks to patients.Results and discussion Given the current lack of evidence on quality and safety improvements and on the cost–benefits associated with the introduction of eHealth applications, there should be a focus on implementing more mature technologies; it is also important that eHealth applications should be evaluated against a comprehensive and rigorous set of measures, ideally at all stages of their application life cycle.