It’s some kind of a record. IBM has been a top story  
three times this week, culminating in the news yesterday that it’s
going to
be reinventing healthcare IT with the University of Pittsburgh Medical
Center (UMPC). Some of the more cynical observers of the healthcare IT
scene note that UPMC seems to have been down this road with Cerner
before, and that many times academic centers’ alliances with IT vendors
(such as
Vanderbilt’s with McKesson) haven’t really produced that much new and
startling. Nonetheless, Big Blue is taking serious aim at the
healthcare world, while GE is working with Intermountain in Utah
(usually acknowledged to be the leader in "care processes delivery"),
and Kaiser is working hand in
glove with Epic, to name just a few. You can add to that the news that
Accenture is looking to get seriously into the provider implementation
market here (by buying CapGemini’s practice) as it already is in the
UK. Finally, persistent rumors have Oracle sniffing around a major HCIT
vendor purchase,
perhaps Cerner. There is clearly a shortage of good implementation
people on the clinical IT front, and the strategy folks at all these
big companies see healthcare as the next big industry (along with
government) to deliver their paychecks for a mix of high margin
software and consulting services.
I just hope all you providers out there can afford it!