The Internet will transform the industry eventually, but it’s a tough one to wring a profit from. Says an article in Red Herring magazine’s October issue in a special report on healthcare IT. The article doesn’t fall prey to rosy predictions of computers in healthcare: ‘…e-health
companies point out that Internet-based software is finally a way to get [doctors] all connected
to insurers, labs, and each other at a relatively low cost. But with such small practices, most
doctors don’t have IT or finance managers evaluating potential cost savings. And the
doctors themselves, as a rule, focus almost wholly on treating patients, as all their education
and training has prepared them to do, rather than on running a business.’ An interesting statistic is that health care budgets 2 to 3 percent of
its budget to IT, compared with between 5 and 10 percent for other industries. Thanks to Yves Paindeveine for this link.