1.0 Introduction1.1 About St. James's HospitalSt. James's Hospital (SJH) is the leading provider of acute care in Ireland. As a result, it is a key driver of public policy within the Irish healthcare system. It occupies a prominent position in the eyes of the public and places great emphasis on 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 EPR (Electronic Paper Record) system and effectively eliminate the use of paper from its operations. This initiative has the potential to transform patient care and significantly improve efficiency and patient safety. 1.2 Rationale for the Review If SJH is to leverage EPR to its full potential, it is critical that the management team understand the relationship between technology and competitive advantage. The findings from this literature review should inform management as they attempt to secure funding for this initiative and also guide them regarding potential barriers in subsequent implementation. 2.0 Information Gathering Strategy The ABI/Inform and Social Sciences Citation Index databases were used to identify journal articles for this review. Both databases could be accessed via the UCD library website. The databases were searched using the following key words/phrases: • “Technology-related competitive advantage” • “Sustaining competitive advantage” • “Information technology and competitive advantage” • “Technological innovation 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 paper... with respect to the technological strategy adopted in determining the potential and extent of competitive advantage due to EPR; • EPR has the potential to spark and increase innovation levels at SJH. If this potential is to be realized, management should be aware of the barriers to innovation; • An IT governance committee should support the director of information technology, senior management and the board of directors in ensuring that this costly 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 irrelevant to strategy and as a result the importance of the risk it creates may increase in importance.