The Internet & Healthcare

The Internet is invading almost every industry. Success stories of companies such as ebay and amazon.com are in the news daily; the banking industry and travel industry have been changed forever. However, it seems as though the healthcare industry has lagged behind other industries with respect to exploiting the full potential of the Internet. My goal is to research the effectiveness of ecommerce in the healthcare industry in terms of providing an effective means of communication between patients and providers, as a mechanism for conveying information about health, wellness, and drugs, and as a sales channel for health-related products. Furthermore, ecommerce can be used to streamline costs and better manage procurements for supplies throughout the healthcare industry.

 Websites

  http://www.aridni.com/ ***** This is the website of an electronic prescription company. There are pages within this website that describe the benefits of promoting and using e-prescription technology from various stakeholders’ perspectives.

http://www.webmd.com/ ***** This is one of the most well-known websites for accessing healthcare information. This website demonstrates how the Internet can be used as a communication tool between providers and consumers/patients. Viewers can access the information contained in this page as a Consumer, Physician, WebRN, Office Manager, or Health Teacher.

http://www.wholehealthmd.com/ ***** This website provides health and wellness information. In this instance, the term wellness includes alternative medicine. Thus, viewers can ask the wholehealthmd experts any questions regarding health, wellness, and alternative medicine, find a practitioner in their area, and browse through a collection of nutritious recipes.

http://www.neoforma.com/ ***** This is a premiere website that aims to bring the buyers and sellers of medical supplies and equipment together in a single virtual marketplace, thereby streamlining the procurement process for the entire healthcare industry.

http://www.datamonitor.com/ **** This is the website for a company that performs market analysis; one of their main focuses is on the healthcare industry. Many relevant articles can be accessed by viewing news stories. Also, outlines of analysts’ reports can be viewed for free (access to complete reports requires registration.)

Articles

http://www.bestreview.com/lh/1999-11/balance.html ***** "Balance of Power. Health insurers have a limited window of opportunity in which to capitalize on the Internet’s potential. But they must be savvy enough to survive the economic impact…" This is a terrific article about using the Internet to add value to the health insurance value chain.

http://clientaccess.pjc.com/piper/analystcorner/bnbhc.asp ***** This article contains a brief overview of the current status of the Internet in the healthcare industry in addition to links to complete analysts’ reports.

  http://www.healthforum.com/cgi-bin/SM40i.exe?docid=5363:2078&%70assArticleId=15716 ***** The thesis of this article is that the organization and delivery of healthcare have changed very little over the past century. The author suggests models for changing the current organization and delivery methods. Information technology and the Internet play a big role in advocating these changes.

  http://www.dorenfest.com/pages/press/state_of_the_computer.htm **** "The State of the Computer-Based Patient Record. Value, experiments, promises, disappointments, hype, compromises, and change all characterize the status of the computer-based patient record (CPR). An industry expert offers some perspective on where the CPR has been and where it’s going."

  http://www.amsinc.com/Insurance/whitepapers.htm *** Although some of this information is slightly dated (June 1997,) the content explains what ecommerce means for the insurance industry. There are also links to other white papers, such as the impacts of ecommerce on Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans.


 
 
Note: The information below may contain additional relevant materials and documents. Some of the information may be duplicate. The evaluations depend on both the student doing the review and the information contained at the time of the review. Sites are subject to change!