Forbes magazine is one of my favourite reads. Last evening before bedtime, I was catching up on the May 21 issue – (opposite left), my copy now almost 9 days old was lying idle altough I had skimmed through its pages already, when I noticed on page 28 from the Leaderboard pages, a short commentary on computing entrepreneur Neal Patterson, founder and Chief Executive of Cerner, “the world’s largest stand-alone maker of health IT systems – and company number 1,621 on FORBES’ Global 2000 list”.

I remember reading a past issue about this man (the May 7 issue to be exact, as I found out from this page 28 commentary).

I also remembered Patterson’s startup beginnings when I was researching for my other blog I am working on, Internet Start-ups.

This May 7 issue (opposite right) ran a cover story – “Obamacare Billionaires: What One Entrepreneur’s Rise Says about the Future of Medicine”, on this billionaire health information technology personality.  I retrieved back this past issue and read this cover story again, as I thought it would make an interesting re-read, make a post to blog out and share, since I am been passionate lately on enhancing this blog, from stories ranging from anything traditional paper records to EHRs/EMRs.

Last  night I quickly assembled this post, touched up the post this morning, and its before your eyes now. I don’t wish to write a long post and drown you with all that is in this cover story(you can research it as well if you wish to know more), but what I wish to do with this post is to share with you some reflections from this man who for 33 years “has preached better health through information”, and the future on EHRs particularly in the U.S. along with President Obama’s plan to mandate an EHR for every US citizen by 2014( p. 445 of H.R. 1, Economic Stimulus Bill).

Pals, below I quote his vision and thoughts I picked from my Forbes read which I think are worthy of mention, from the minds of a start-up entrepreneur “growing up on a wheat farm on the Kansas-­Oklahoma border”:

• Patterson “insists that health care’s moment of digital transformation has arrived. “It is finally happening,” he says. “Without a doubt in my mind, it is happening this decade.”¹
• Both Patterson and Bernard Birnbaum, vice dean and chief of operations at NYU Lang one Medical Centre in New York City maintain that they are “off to the races”²
• Both Patterson and Bernard Birnbaum are adamant that “health costs are ramping up too fast”,  “you need well-implemented electronic health records ………you need to manage the data”, and “the trajectory of health care in America and elsewhere is set”²
• Patterson cites “To Err Is Human” report “as the moment when health IT entered the mainstream”³
• “Patterson says he isn’t worried at all” what Bates⁴ thinks the day when“Microsoft and Google could finally move into the health care industry, exploding the niche that has protected Cerner and its rivals for so long”, and that “he’s ready for revolution”.
• Pattersons claims, “There is going to be fundamental change that’s going to happen,” he says, “but the elements of that change are all here today. And it’s going to be better for almost every participant.”

¹ What is really “happening this decade”, is Cerner’s financial gains past 5 years. Patterson is visionary, made many innovations in computing and data storage and this has made him a very rich man. President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform has given him a healthy boost as well.

² There is little likelihood business will be hurt for Cerner and that of its rivals. Cerner’s fortunes and Patterson’s as well, is predicted to continue to grow no matter what happens in the election and regardless of what happens when the Supreme Court rules on the Obamacare plan.

³ When I was managing hospital quality management, the 1999 “To Err Is Human “ report from the prestigious Institute of Medicine, was a favourite report to quote and reference on patient safety. This report “detailed how between 44,000 and 98,000 people die every year in hospitals from preventable mistakes, like getting the wrong medicine or the wrong dose of the right one.” “The ­report specifically prescribed better computer systems as a way to prevent these deadly mistakes”.

⁴ David Westfall Bates, a Harvard professor was the lead author of the Institute of Medicine report.

I think with the hype surrounding the Obamacare plan blowing through the US amidst all the confusion and concerns over privacy and freedom to choose, health IT and EHRs/EMRs will still get a tremendous boost in the US, and this I believe will have a spiralling effect all over the world(the trajectory effect)², when other nations emulate the US’s strides towards switching to EHRs/EMRs.

What I tried to do here in this post is to bring you excerpts of a visionary’s push for a greater IT enabled industry in the US which would have direct impact for medical records and health information management there and the world, and what’s trending now in health IT.

< Happy weekend as I shall continue posting only next week! >