Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Wal-Mart enters the med-tech field

Bet you didn't see this coming: Wal-Mart Plans to Market Digital Health Records System

EHR - electronic health records - offer a way to improve health care and hospital efficiency by allowing easier access to patient records and easier sharing of critical information between different offices. The problem is that the systems are expensive, so while large hospitals may be using EHR, your private physician probably isn't. Which means, say, if you go to the hospital, your regular doctor can't easily give another doctor your file and all that potentially helpful information it contains. Enter Wal-Mart, who aims to make EHR affordable for the individual doctor or a small office.

“We’re a high-volume, low-cost company,” said Marcus Osborne, senior director for health care business development at Wal-Mart. “And I would argue that mentality is sorely lacking in the health care industry.”


Truer words were never spoken.

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