Executive Interest in Informatics Seen Growing—But Not the Human and Financial Resources Needed

At the same time, as soon as the market alignment—and I think meaningful use will help drive that—the meaningful use Stage 2 rules force providers to provide information—that will change things. And once that happens more and more—I’ve been a long-term promoter of personal health records, even though I struggle to use them myself, because the value proposition isn’t yet there—but if I’m able to designate my provider, and if I’m the center of it, then if I want to make my data available for clinical research, I can make it available. I personally don’t care about my privacy as much as having an effect with the data. And that’s me; others feel differently about it. But the value proposition with personal health data is far larger. And when that matures, it will make it more worthwhile to make the front-end investment in making the data right to begin with. And that’s how we’ll ultimately make a host of things like health information exchange, happen.