Originally Published MX November/December 2004
EDITOR'S PAGE
Vision and Reality
In the world of today's healthcare visionaries—including those within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—the application of information technologies (IT) has achieved a position of preeminence. If not the solution to all ills, IT is certainly seen as the solution to many of the problems in today's healthcare system.
It is questionable, however, whether such visionaries have given much thought to how or by whom IT-based medical products will be developed, manufactured, and marketed. These are not inconsiderable issues, in part because the creation of a nationwide IT infrastructure will almost certainly exert a decisive influence over the features and functions of many future medical products.
In this issue's installments of our continuing series, "IT in Healthcare," we've chosen to focus on the applications of IT in two areas familiar to medtech executives: manufacturing and sales. In his article on "Outsourcing for Medical Electronics", author Mark Zetter explores the options that medical device manufacturers will have for producing the coming generation of IT-based devices. And in a companion article, "IT in the Hands of Field Sales Reps", David Kerr explains how handheld tools are helping to automate the delivery of critical product information to company sales reps.
It's likely true that such manufacturing-related IT concerns are not high on healthcare visionaries' list of priorities. But without the ability to manufacture and sell necessary products into the marketplace efficiently, progress toward a national infrastructure for healthcare IT will be slow indeed.
As mundane as they may seem, such concerns are important to manufacturers. Handled correctly, an efficient manufacturing and sales process should stimulate medtech companies to develop products that meet the needs of an IT-based healthcare system. Such considerations should be equally on the minds of those who have envisioned the future of healthcare and are helping to make it a reality.
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