Law Students

Tech Giants Want to Take Your Pulse: This article from Forbes illustrates why change will come to the healthcare industry. It will come partly from technology vendors pushing the interests of consumers with support from the Federal government.

It is doubtful that any of these players (tech, consumers and government) could be change agents standing alone. Standing together they will be a force to be reckoned with. Privacy and security are serous issues but they will be addressed because it is clear to all that eHealth initiatives depend on it.

These kinds of tough problems have been solved before. Other industries have been securely and reliably conducting electronic transactions for well over three decades. There is significant "hand wringing" within some quarters in the healthcare industry regarding why electronic medical records won't work given all the complexity. They are partly right. It is quite complex.

However, their view of the world tends to be insular and myopic. Problems of similar complexity in other industries have long since been solved. It is time for the healthcare industry to take a leadership role in solving the problem instead of opposing the solution by clinging to the status quo.

Patients, the forgotten stakeholders in our current healthcare system, deserve to be better served. They will soon start to demand it in greater numbers. Apparently their voices are starting to be heard.