Patient Medical Record Systems: Challenges and Opportunities

PRESS RELEASE

PATIENT MEDICAL RECORD SYSTEMS:
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

JACK M. SHAPIRO
P.O. BOX 1025
Maywood, NJ 07607
Phone: 888-331-3113
E-mail: Jack@JackShapiro.com
Website: www.JackShapiro.com


Maywood, NJ June 30, 2006


The oft-stated belief is that comprehensive patient medical records systems could save 20 – 30% off the nation’s staggering healthcare expenditure. With annual healthcare expenditures of about $2 trillion and expected to double in the next ten years, this could be a considerable savings. At 16% of GDP, U.S. healthcare expenditures are the highest in the history of the world and some experts think this may reach 20% in the next 10-15 years.

Jack Shapiro, internationally recognized healthcare marketing consultant, futurist, broadcast journalist, and public speaker, has outlined the following challenges, which lie ahead for a comprehensive patient medical record system in the U.S.:

— Calculating Return on Investment (ROI) will be very difficult. The point
is that a comprehensive patient medical record system is a VERY GOOD
IDEA in and of itself and will probably save lives, even if calculating ROI
becomes a difficult or impossible task;

— Many cash-strapped medical centers and smaller institutions do not have the capital resources to implement a comprehensive patient medical records system;

— “Cultural resistance” (i.e., the inability or refusal of employees to learn or adapt to a new system – including physicians in private practices) will be a huge challenge;

— The argument for a 20 – 30% cost savings if such a system were implemented has been around for many years with no real sign that those institutions which have implemented such systems have actually achieved those savings or been able to sustain them;

— There is an open question as to whether such cost savings, if achieved, would actually be passed through or just “lost” somewhere in the system or, worse yet, “pocketed” without ever really reducing costs;

— Consumer advocates point to unresolved privacy issues, particularly as biotechnology is producing novel diagnostic tests based on genetic markers that are general but not specific indicators of potential disease in individual patients. Incorporating these findings which could be highly tentative in a comprehensive patient medical records system without adequate privacy safeguards could affect a patient’s employment prospects and health insurance eligibility and costs, to name two key issues.


In a recent speech to members of the healthcare services industry, Jack Shapiro, spoke about some of the evolving opportunities for comprehensive medical information systems in the United States. His speech can be downloaded at NO CHARGE on his website: www.jackshapiro.com. (click “video and audio gallery” and then click “listen”).

Mr. Shapiro is available to speak at your next meeting as well as to write columns and articles for publications. Please contact him to receive a press kit (including a video cassette of his recent speech).

THIS MAN KNOWS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE

Jack M. Shapiro, is an internationally known healthcare marketing consultant, futurist, broadcast journalist and public speaker.

Jack includes among his clients major pharmaceutical and insurance companies, advertising agencies, hospitals and manufacturers of medical equipment supplies and devices. Often quoted in the healthcare industry, general business, and lay publications, Jack has been a frequent guest on national television (ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, PBS and abroad on BBC and ITN) and radio as a commentator on healthcare trends and politics in the United States and overseas.

From 1997-1999, he was the host of “MEDI-POLITICS,” a nationally syndicated radio show focusing on the politics and future of healthcare as well as key legal and ethical issues. The show reached more than 40 markets in 26 states and an audience of 31 million people.

Jack has spent more than 35 years in the healthcare field, both in the U.S. and abroad. Before forming his successful research and consulting company, he held high-level management positions in marketing and market research with healthcare giants such as Pfizer, Wyeth, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.