http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,25064649-24170,...

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,25064649-24170,00.html

Font Size: Decrease Increase Print Page: Print Karen Dearne | February 17, 2009
PUMP priming through investment in public healthcare, particularly in the US, will cushion the e-health sector globally, Gary Cohen says.

'Health IT is a major means of getting money into the community,' says Gary Cohen
"Investing in health IT is a major means of getting money into the community and doing something valuable, and President Obama has recognised that," Cohen says.
"Some US private healthcare firms have revised their forecasts downwards, but companies such as IBA that focus on the public sector are either not affected or seeing increasing demand."

Cohen says Australia represents only about 12 per cent of IBA's revenue.

"China has just announced it will spend $US125 billion ($193 billion) over the next three years to provide accessible healthcare to its 1.3 billion people," he says.



"The Chinese Government wants to build up clinic-type markets away from hospitals and is focused on driving the change from the hospital system into the community by exchanging information."

He says IBA has reviewed its China business and wants a big involvement there.

Meanwhile, Obama's commitment to public healthcare spending opens the possibility of new markets in the US, but Cohen is pessimistic about local progress.

"Whether Australia takes a year or two longer on e-health won't matter to our bottom line, but as an Australian it would be nice to see the nation taking more ownership and pride in building its health IT infrastructure," Cohen says.

"The Government is probably the only party that has the capacity to break the deadlock, as people at the grassroots are locked into existing budgets and bureaucracies.

"It's time to say we are a country of only 20 million people, and we cannot afford to replicate the services, processes, information systems and contracts 10 times over.

"If we had two or three data centres to service the whole country, we could save hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure costs."

Cohen calls for "emboldened" leadership, because "every day that goes by we read about another person dying because the hospital didn't have enough room, the doctor made a mistake or because the health records were wrong or lost".

"If the hospital error rate occurred in the airline industry it would take a nanosecond for an outraged public to say this shouldn't be happening in the 21st century," he says.