Medical DevicesGE, Big Vendors Corner EMR Market; Smaller Vendors Explore Health 2.0
Staying ahead of the upcoming drive to sell electronic health records to hospitals and physicians may be difficult for smaller vendors, Pharmawire/Financial Times reports. General Electric announced a program last week to provide health care organizations with financing options to purchase health technology through its financial services arm even as it sells electronic records through its health care wing. Other large vendors like Cerner and McKesson will be able to keep up, but smaller producers will be left behind, industry experts said.
A rush of new customers is expected in upcoming years because the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides incentives - more than $20 billion - for health providers to purchase the technology (Avallone and Longpre, 6/24).
In other news, Atlas Venture, a venture capital firm, is gearing up to make investments that will "improve health care by empowering patients," the Wall Street Journal"s blog, Venture Capital Dispatch, reports. The company has recently invested in Keas, a health 2.0 company that develops Web technologies that help consumers "better their health." Atlas partner and technology specialist Jeff Fagnan said "the firm may make four or five of these types of investments with its current fund... which closed at $283 million last year" (Gormley, 6/25).
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