By John Ballard
An old joke says the economy relies on two principles, but this time the check IS in the mail and the part IS on order.
It's the stimulus.
Dr. Halamka knows about it first hand.
In 1981-82, Kathy, my wife to be, and I lived with Frederick E. Terman, former Provost of Stanford University and Silicon Valley pioneer, son of Lewis Terman, inventor of the IQ Test. In his final year of his life, Terman told me of his wartime experiences - innovative radar jammers, tunable receivers to detect radar signals, and anti-radar aluminum chaff, all created at an accelerated pace by his 850 person team at the Harvard Radio Research Laboratory. It was his version of the Stimulus Bill work we're doing today. Did he remember the stress, the wartime rationing, or emotional cost? No, he remembered only the incredible achievements created in unreasonable time frames and motivated by the world environment around him.
2010 will be a turning point in our industry. There will never again be a time when $46 billion in funding for Healthcare IT is aligned with government/industry/academia momentum for change.
The sleepless nights, grant fatigue, policy arguments, and standards debates will all be forgotten.
We'll be telling our grandchildren about 2010 and how we transformed healthcare from a cottage industry of information silos into a connected ecosystem for coordination of care, public health, and patient engagement.
Of course our grandchildren will claim it's always been that way.
These are the Good Old Days. Trust me.
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