Prescription for an I.T. Disaster?

In 2002, the British government embarked on a $12 billion effort to transform its health-care system with information technology. But the country’s oversight agency now puts that figure at $24 billion, and two Members of Parliament say the project is “sleepwalking toward disaster.”

Story Guide:

  • A Bold Vision: Lifelong Electronic Patient Records
  • In the Beginning, Bill Gates Pitches Tony Blair
  • Selecting Suitable Vendors
  • What’s Ailing the Project?
  • Waiting for Lorenzo: Software Needs Major Surgery
  • Health-Care Executives Under Fire

    Also in This Feature:

  • The Players Under the Microscope
  • Calculating Costs of a Runaway-Project Recovery
  • Technologies That Promise a Cure
  • A Time Line of the Project’s Progress (and Lack of It)