Back on the topic of Healthcare IT.

The recent passage of the economic stimulus package including $20 BILLION for Healthcare IT has me ecstatic and nervous. I'm happy because, hopefully this will translate to job security. I didn't know it would happen this quick, but I had a conversation with my old boss about Obama and $$$ for Healthcare IT and I called it. Only problem is- as the original article of this email chain indicated, IT is incorrectly viewed as a panacea.

On the one hand, this may be a good way of killing two birds with one stone- help the economy, and boost healthcare IT adoption. On the other hand, strictly economically speaking, I don't think investment in healthcare IT is the best solution. As I mentioned in my earlier comments- the ROI is slooow. Not helpful to the quick turn around our economy needs.

I am no economist, and I don't quite understand the inner workings of a national economy, but I think we need innovation that the world could use. That's a strong economy. Like the industrial revolution- spittin out cars and machines and things the world's people could use. Services or products that everybody wants or could use. Healthcare is something that nobody really wants- or wishes they could do without. And healthcare IT is simply a tool to help reduce healthcare costs and improve quality of care. Could this $20 Billion improve the US's quality of care enough and reduce its cost (currently eclipsing the rest of the world) to reverse medical tourism? That would be awesome, but I am a tad skeptical. Not that it won't happen, but that it won't happen quick. It is not a traditional medical technology like the x-ray, or the PET. It is technology focused on processes, efficiency, a tool that works more closely with a doctor's decision making than a tool that provides more data (like a lab test, or PET scan). It is going to take a while for doctors to get used to having such a powerful tool to supplement their decision making.

I think it is a stretch to say Healthcare IT will increase the GNP. Sure the stimulus money will go to some US based Healthcare IT companies, and improve the economy that way, but to really help the economy, we need something like the Saudi's oil. US Healthcare would have to be the absolute best in the world, affordable, and accessible for it to truly be an asset to the US economy.

I 100% think this can be achieved. But it will take time, and I am worried when it starts to take too much time, Healthcare IT will get a bad rap. Something like: (1-2 years from now) "Look at those $20Billion in 2009 to Healthcare IT lotta good that did." Then hopefully 5-10 years from now: "US Healthcare: the best and most efficient in the world."

Funny thing is though, I think truly good healthcare isn't really a service- its a lifestyle. Maybe we should spend $15B on how to brain wash people to be healthy, and $5B on healthy supplements, innovations.

What America really needs is what me and my cousin think about every sunny Sunday afternoon- That Million Dollar Idea: Simple, useful, ingenious.