Transforming healthcare: The information age meets healthcare

Abstract

I the year 2004, two profound events occurred in less than four hundred milesapart along the Northeastern corridor of the U.S. On April 27, 2004, President George W. Bush signed an executive order establishing the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology with the directive that by 2014 any American that wanted an electronic health record would have one and they would all be connected to a National Health Information Network. Three hundred and ninety five miles north in Boston on Harvard’s campus, something called “The Facebook” was founded on February 4, 2004. Ten years later more than 1.2 billion people around the world are active monthly users of Facebook, yet not every U.S. citizen has an electronic health record and those that do exist are rarely connected. What happened? This session will focus on the market dynamics surrounding the two events, why one succeeded while another stumbled. Attendees will be offered a counter point of view that technology is not a barrier to moving healthcare into the Information Age. Technology enables but behaviors across all levels of the industry from providers to payors to life sciences all the sectors that support healthcare including end-consumers have a role in this transformation. Competitive strategies will be redefined as consumers with expectations conditioned in speed, efficiency and convenience come face to face with healthcare. The landscape will be transformed; organizations will rise and fall based on how they adapt and react. What can your organization do to prepare and how can you capitalize on the opportunities?