subject: Healthcare Evolution: Online Medical Data [print this page] The intrinsic benefits of such a system are those, that a health care institution derives from posting its data on the Internet. The network benefits are the incremental advantages it gains when it receives relevant information from external sources. The costs of setting up and operating a system include network and hardware, software, and personnel. Substantial returns become apparent only as the size of the exchange grows and participation rates increase. Large hospital networks can possibly reap a high-cap annual net benefit of $5.7 million. While physicians have the most to gain from a network ($2,400 for a $40 investment per physician), they are also the least likely to participate, given their historical reluctance to pay for information technology and to share data. The most likely network organizers are hospitals, which would gain substantially from the streamlined transfer of laboratory and radiology data. The evolution will eventually be dictated by how fast clinics log-on to the movement.
