Healthcare industry moves slowly onto the Internet

New York Times, April 6, 2009

The Obama administration's plan to spend $19 billion to hasten the adoption of electronic health records that can share data across networks will only give more impetus to the shift toward Internet-style computing. One good example of the trend is a joint project, between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and GE Healthcare. The project will deliver individually tailored public health alerts to electronic health records in doctors' offices. The goal, for example, is to have an alert pop up on a physician's screen that a certain patient, based on location, age, and perhaps occupation, might be at risk for an influenza outbreak that is nearing a certain community or for contracting a food-borne illness.