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News In Review

June 7, 1999

Physician, Heal Thyself

By Gregory Dalton

The rapid expansion of electronic business is causing many industry sectors to play catch-up. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the health-care industry.

Health care has lagged in its use of IT, a trend that holds true in E-business. According to a recent survey by InformationWeek and Business Week of 375 IT and business executives that measured E-business activity in various industries, 42% of retail and travel firms and 36% of finance companies have deployed some kind of E-commerce applications. The adoption rate in health care is only 20%.

"Physicians have been somewhat cynical about investing in computing systems," says Dr. Peter Dysert, chief medical information officer at Baylor Health Care in Dallas. "Historically, systems haven't appeared to deliver what was promised during the sale." The majority of technology investments were made in producing bills, which yielded only marginal benefits to a doctor's overall operations.

But the Internet is changing health care. Consumers have traditionally relied on doctors and hospitals for medical information and advice. Now, because of the vast amount of information available to individuals over the Internet, patients are starting to treat health care more like a consumer industry--researching and comparing different services and making more independent decisions.

"Consumers are leading the charge," says Dysert. "Medicine is trying to play catch-up." Doctors are beginning to think about new ways to interact electronically with their patients, he says, such as scheduling and answering questions via E-mail.

Customer Focus
Rick Ratliff, VP of IT at VHA Inc., a nationwide group of hospitals, clinics, and physicians, is working more closely than ever with marketing to accommodate a customer-oriented focus. "Now that consumers have options to buy medicines and vitamins over the Internet, that's really changing the dynamic for our members and for us," says Ratliff. For example, VHA developed an extranet called SecureNet that's used by 35,000 physicians, materials managers, and nurses. It includes a clinical reference library and online catalogs. A purchasing function will be added later this year.

VHA is now working on extending its external links to SecureNet, to focus more on the information needs of patients and customers. "We're moving five to 10 times faster than we were last year," says Ratliff. The company's Internet technology group has increased its resources by 50% over the last six months. Says Ratliff, "We need to get applications out the door faster because of the demands" made by E-business.

Return to main story, "E-Business Evolution."


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