AT&T Expands Stake In Health IT
The Associated Press: "AT&T Inc., the country's largest telecommunications company, on Thursday said it is setting up a division to target the health care industry," in hopes of being part of the action when the industry "adopts electronic medical records, doctor's visits by video-conferencing and wireless gadgets like remote glucose monitors." The company's new "ForHealth" division "will be selling wireless services, networking services like video-conferencing and 'cloud computing' - under which AT&T runs computers and applications for clients who access them through the Internet;" a more ambitious enterprise than what other telecom companies have done in the past" (Svensson, 11/4).The New York Times: "The new business is the result of 18 months of study and hiring," and includes "300 sales people and 20 others with medical and computing backgrounds who will work with industry partners, doctors, hospitals and community groups to tailor health technology offerings," according to an AT&T senior vice president. "The industry's optimism is partly a byproduct of the administration's ambitious plan, backed by $19 billion in incentive payments, to get the nation's doctors and hospitals to adopt electronic health records over the next five years." Computerized health records are seen as "financial pump-priming - and a technology foundation - for further investments in health technology." Creating "regional and statewide hubs for sharing data, called 'health information exchanges,'" are the first step in coordinating care (Lohr, 11/4).
Computerworld: According to the analyst firm IDC, "IT healthcare spending in 2010 is expected to reach $33.9 billion and will growth about 24% year over year for the next four years." Among AT&T's services is a "Telehealth Solutions service" that "uses high-definition video and audio conferencing technology to enable patients in rural or under-served areas to consult with medical specialists and even receive examinations in the comfort of their primary physician's office, community hospital or clinic" (Mearian, 11/4).
The Dallas Morning News: "AT&T is also developing an array of consumer-oriented medical technologies," including "sensors that can be attached to a smart phone to scan a diabetic's blood and instantly transmit the results to a doctor." Eventually, the company plans to expand that monitoring system to "help patients manage other chronic diseases, such as heart disease and asthma" (Godinez, 11/4).
In other news, "The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wants industry help in digitizing clinical quality measures so healthcare providers can send them to CMS directly from their electronic health record systems," Government Health IT reports. "The work sought by CMS would help streamline the process by which providers could meet pending criteria for meaningful use" (Mosquera, 11/3). This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
