This is a complete article from the Federal Telemedicine NEWS.
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David Pearce Snyder a consulting futurist presented his ideas on the real future of American healthcare in the current World Future Society newsletter called “FUTUREtakes”. He pointed out that since the VA installed EMRs in 1,400 hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes, the VA has been able to double the number of patients that are treated each year from 2.5 million to 5.3 million while maintaining an average annual per patient cost of $5,000. During the same period, the cost of comparable private care rose 40% to $6,500 per patient. The VA has not only reduced staffing by 13%, but the over 65 year old patients have a 40% lower risk of death than do over 65 Medicare patients in private facilities.

In the near term future, innovation in healthcare will be driven by demographic necessities, and the need to provide quality care for a rapidly growing patient population with a slowly growing labor pool. However, the major innovations in healthcare will involve the outsourcing of chronic and convalescent care to patient’s homes. Presently, major IT firms such as Honeywell and Philips Electronics are introducing a line of home health monitors, while Intel is developing specialty microchips for use in telemedicine.

Electronic Medical Records will play a major role in the future but the healthcare profession’s reluctance to using electronic patient records will have to be overcome. To jump start EMRs, Snyder expects the Federal government to issue smart cards to all Medicare/Medicaid recipients by 2010-2012 and to mandate electronic reporting by large care providers.

For more information on the entire article, contact David Pearce Snyder at david@the-future.com or phone 301-530-5807. For information on the World Future Society, go to www.wfs.org.