[medinformatics] IT Could be the Antidote for Rising Health Care Costs

[Medical Informatics News]

Information technology, a digital revolution, could cut costs as fast as other changes in
health care are pushing them higher. The resulting standoff between the two forces would keep medicine affordable for
everyone, or make it so. From the Sacramento Bee:


To imagine the transformation of health care that could be about to occur, says Arnie Milstein, a medical doctor
with a masters in public health, think of Southwest Airlines. It’s as if that discount air carrier’s creators had
walked into the offices of United Airlines 20 years ago and said they were going to do better on employee satisfaction,
better on customer satisfaction, better on safety, all while having ticket prices that were far less than what the big
guys were then charging. “They would have been laughed out of the room,” Milstein says.

His comments came at a conference here last week sponsored by the California
Healthcare Foundation that was, appropriately enough, moved at the last minute because of a hotel labor dispute
that arose in part over health care costs.

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