Trickle Down: What Obama's Stimulus Plan Means For You

IT solution providers in the health-care market might benefit the most from the stimulus bill. The measure proposes spending $20 billion on health-care information technology such as electronic medical records to lower the cost and improve the quality of health-care services. Adding momentum to the initiative, Obama, in a Jan. 8 speech at George Mason University, set a goal of computerizing the medical records of all Americans within five years.

"There's a huge, huge potential there," said Jack Smyth, president and CEO of Spring Medical Systems, a developer of electronic health record applications. "The money Obama has earmarked for electronic health records will be a boon for our industry."

Smyth cited a study that determined that only about 4 percent of all physician offices with 10 or fewer doctors have electronic medical records. "And the only way manufacturers of electronic health record applications are going to get to those small practices is through an effective VAR channel," he said. "That's where the VAR channel really comes into play." Spring Medical Systems has a partner program with some 240 VARs who account for about 80 percent of the company's sales.

But the devil is in the details of just how the health-care IT funding will pan out for VARs, said Wesley Gipe, president of Agil IT, a solution provider that implements and services electronic medical record systems and other health-care IT. "We're definitely hearing buzz about it, but the plans are pretty vague at this point," he said.

Gipe, for example, said it isn't clear from the legislation whether the funding will focus on implementing electronic health-care record-keeping applications in physician offices, hospitals and larger clinics, or some combination of the two. He also notes it isn't clear whether the initiative will favor software from specific vendors or mandate specific data format and communication standards. Such requirements could leave solution providers that bet on the wrong technologies out in the cold.

Agil IT, nevertheless, is positioning itself to be ready when the picture becomes clearer. The solution provider doesn't resell products from any one vendor, opting instead to provide services built around electronic medical record applications from numerous vendors, including General Electric, NextGen Healthcare Information Systems and Greenway Medical Technologies. The solution provider also has a marketing person who maintains relations with area hospitals and professional medical organizations.

Steve Hoover, manager of the Xerox Research Center, agreed with Palmisano on the three technology areas proposed by IBM as first-order priorities. But he added a fourth: Leveraging Web 2.0 communication tools to make government more transparent and information exchange between government agencies and citizens more efficient and dynamic.

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