High-Tech Alliance on Base for a Digital Health Network

This NYTimes article says that eight of the heavies in the computer and softwared industry have agreed to adopt open standards for a health information network. So there’s hope of getting somewhere…

Eight of the nation’s largest technology companies, including  I.B.M.,  Microsoft and  Oracle,
have agreed to embrace open, nonproprietary technology standards as the
software building blocks for a national health information network.

A crucial step, health care specialists say, will be to agree on
technology standards for sending health data across the network and
sharing information, when appropriate, among doctors, hospitals,
insurers and researchers.

A national health information network, analysts say, would not only improve the efficiency in America’s fragmented health care system, but would also create an attractive market for information technology products and services. The eight companies in the consortium are I.B.M., Microsoft, Intel, Oracle, Accenture, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and Computer Sciences.