1.0 Introduction1.1 About St. James's HospitalSt. James's Hospital (SJH) is the leading provider of acute patient care in Ireland. It is therefore a key element of public policy within the Irish health system. It occupies a prominent position in the public eye and attaches great importance to innovation and service excellence. SJH must constantly compete for government resources to achieve its goals. One of these goals is to become the first hospital in Ireland to implement a comprehensive paper-based electronic record (EPR) and effectively eliminate the use of paper in its operations. This initiative has the potential to transform patient care and significantly improve efficiency and patient safety. 1.2 Rationale for Review If SJH is to realize the full potential of EPR, it is essential that the management team understands the relationship between the technology and competitive advantage. The results of this literature review should inform management as they attempt to secure funding for this initiative and also guide them regarding potential pitfalls in further implementation.2.0 Information Gathering StrategyABI/Inform and Social Sciences Citation Index databases were used to locate journal articles for this initiative. goodbye. Both databases were accessed via the UCD Library website. Databases were searched using the following key words/phrases: • “Technology-related competitive advantage” • “Maintaining competitive advantage” • “Information technology and competitive advantage” • “Innovation technology and competitive advantage” • “IT governance and competitive advantage”. Results were refined by journal title to exclude articles from non-business/management/IT disciplines. The articles were also filtered...... in the middle of the document ...... as the technological strategy adopted to determine the potential and extent of the competitive advantage due to the EPR; • The EPR has the potential to spark and increase levels of innovation at SJH. Management must be aware of the barriers to innovation if this potential is to be realized; • An IT governance committee should help the CIO, senior management and the board of directors ensure that this expensive project remains under control and protected from political opposition and other forces of inertia; • SJH should take a proactive approach in its relationship with the EPR outsourcing partner to maximize utility through experiential learning; and• As more hospitals adopt EPR, it may become essential to competition but inconsequential to strategy and, therefore, the significance of the risk it creates may increase in importance..