oast University Medical Center $($WCMC$)$ is a large teaching and research hospital with a national on for excellence in health care practice, education, and research. Seeking to sustain that reputation, the executive board decided to install a comprehensive medical diagnostic system. The system would be linked AC's servers and be available to physicians from their homes and offices via the Internet. By clicking icons ss a medical specialty area, then keying answers to queries about a patient's medical symptoms and a physician could receive a list of diagnostics with associated statistics.

nior board sent a questionnaire to every department asking managers about the needs of their areas and ey felt the system might improve doctors' performance. Most managers replied that the system would save $s^{\text{'}}$ time and improve performance. The hospital information technology $($IT$)$ group was assigned to assess st and feasibility of implementing the system. They interviewed managers at WCMC and several vendors of stic software. The study showed high enthusiasm among the managers and a long list of potential benefits. on the feasibility study, the board approved the system.

manager invited three well$-$known consulting firms that specialized in medical diagnostic systems to give tations and then hired one to assist his group in selecting and integrating several software packages into a $,$ complete diagnostic system.

ear and millions of dollars later, the project was completed, but $6$ months later, it was clear the system was a Although it did everything the consultants and software vendors had promised, few doctors used it$,$ of that did, many complained that the "benefits" were irrelevant and that features of the system they would liked were lacking.

QUESTIONS

Why was the system a failure?

$2.$What was the likely cause of its lack of use?

$3.$What steps or procedures were poorly handled in the project conception phase?