Between advances in technology and increased interest among policymakers, momentum is finally picking up for the health care industry to embrace the benefits of electronic medical records. As John Dineen, who heads GE Healthcare, tells Forbes magazine in its cover story on the issue, “The market is poised for explosive growth. We can help more people get better outcomes at lower cost” though GE’s electronic medial records products, software and processes. The goal is to make treatment cheaper through the productivity that results and safer for the patient as doctors will have vast amounts of critical patient information at their fingertips.
Down to the wire: Glamorous docs may be front and center on TV dramas, but the more hidden, tech-heavy world of electronic medical records is where one of the most dramatic medical changes is about to take off.
Says Forbes: “The lack of computer automation in the U.S. health system is both surprising and appalling, given the amount of money that’s being poured into medical research and the rising cost of premiums for health coverage.” But with tens of billions of dollars in U.S. stimulus funds already earmarked for getting the medical system wired, the industry is prepping for dramatic changes.
* Read Forbes magazine’s cover story, “The Devil Inside Wired Medicine”
Also in the magazine is a commentary by Dr. Brandon Savage, GE’s chief medical officer, who not only describes the immediate benefits of digitizing medical records, but imagines the ripple effect of positive results that will happen down the road. “With digitizing, the floodgates open to process improvements,” Brandon writes. “What we know from other industries, when outcomes are improved, surprisingly, the cost of operations drop. We have already seen this occurring in health care.”
* Read Brandon’s article, “GE: Health IT Can Offer A Cure” in Forbes
* Read “Health Care’s Cure: Electronic Records” in Forbes
Meanwhile, Fast Company’s “Why Electronic Health Records Are Worth the Hype — and the Price,” observes that the key to success with electronic medical records is “the widespread adoption of a truly interconnected system that doesn’t quite exist yet.”
And for a wide-ranging look at how the medical system will change — from doctors recreating their models with everything from instant messaging to robotics — check out “The Doctor of the Future” in Fast Company.
