InformationWeek

Increased competition, government regulations, and watchdog groups are motivating health care companies to aggressively use business technology to tackle a formidable list of challenges, including compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act (HIPAA) to ensure patient privacy, patient safety and quality of medical care, a nationwide shortage of nurses and other caregivers, preparedness for possible biological or chemical terrorism, and spiraling operational costs.

To deal with these and other challenges, technology professionals working in healthcare have become health care IT innovators and are using IT to optimize processes, reduce mistakes, improve supply chain efficiency and advance medical technology. The collaborative networks and integrated databases they're building are making it possible for the medical community to share knowledge and resources more than ever before, and in real time.

This web site is dedicated to this vital, growing industry. Here you'll find news, research and analysis that health care IT Innovators need to make strategic decisions--decisions on which our entire health care system depends.

--The Editors

If you have a story to pitch, please contact Marianne McGee or refer to our beat list. Additional questions can be directed to Kathy Foley or Fran Witkowski, editorial assistant.

Healthcare Enterprise Editorial Coverage

Healthcare Enterprise will include news, analysis and perspectives on healthcare technology issues. Columns and features will speak directly to healthcare IT decision makers, with the information, research and insight they need to foster and enable business innovation. Topics may include:

• Healthcare safety: how medical care providers can use IT to prevent the tens of thousands of deaths each year attributed to medical errors
• Collaborative systems for remote monitoring and diagnostics
• Regulatory impact on IT spending
• Real-time systems
• Genomics and other areas where science and technology meet
• Best and next practices
• How IT can help deal with the nationwide shortage of nurses and other caregivers
• Influencers and innovators in the field
• Macro influences on IT spending, such as bioterrorism prevention and epidemic management
• Data/system integration issues and evolving standards