[telemedicine] Tech Alliance Forms to Foster Digital Health Network

[Medical Informatics News]

According to an article in today’s NY Times, some*of the nation’s largest technology companies,
including I.B.M., Microsoft and
Oracle, have agreed to embrace open, nonproprietary technology standards
as the software building blocks for a national health information network.


The Bush administration has said that creating such a network should be a national priority over the next several
years. The goal is to improve care and reduce costs by abandoning paper and moving to a digital system for handling
patient records, clinical research, claims and payments. Such a network, analysts agree, should save both lives and
dollars.


A crucial step, health care specialists say, will be to agree on technology standards for sending health data across
the network and sharing information, when appropriate, among doctors, hospitals, insurers and researchers.

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