C. Which of the new market opportunities do you see as most promising?

We feel that most of the new market opportunities in the health care IT innovation were
promising. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) set the national
standards to the providers, insurance companies, group health plans and the government
payors on disclosure and usage of patient information. The act took care of the patient
privacy. Even the new method of CODING the medical services using phrases and numbers
made by the American Medical Association (AMA) had made online communication with
patient possible.
Many companies took steps and started providing electronic services for improving patient
care. “RelayHealth” and “Medfusion” making online communication between the patient and
physician either through setting up appointments or through Virtual Office Suit. RelayHealth
also provided facilities like updating health records, update of lab results and prescription
renewal. Both of the companies offered interactive questionnaires for describing the
symptoms a patient is suffering. TelaDoc provided the patients with 24-hour 7-day access to
physicians through phone where they could consult them for short-term. “Cisco
TelePresence” made real time health services possible the patient and physician could interact
on video conferencing along with sending medical data collected from medical devices.
Beside the online devlopments of the market even the ofline. The Nurse Practioners
underwent additional training and were allowed to perform in hospital emergency rooms,
retail clinics and nursing homes. They also performed activities like health education, disease
prevention activities. Even some walk-in health clinics named “MinuteClinic” and
“RediClinic” were started. They provided treatment for routine health issues and injuries.
Installation Online Care kiosk in the hospital emergency rooms through which the patients
waiting could consult the physician online and by the time physician could actually see the
patient they already know their case; this would increase the efficiency of the hospital. Usage
of the Online Care would also help better utilization of capacity of physicians in hospitals of
low-demand geographic location. Online Care could also be used in Retail Clinics for
consulting physicians as the Nurse Practioners are the highest-level staff present there. It
would help change patient perception for Retail Clinics.
Online communication with pharmacies will help the patients to clear their doubts as the will
get an opportunity to ask any question they coulnt ask in public. It will help patients to
understand the side effects, dangerous drug combination and other relevant information.
International expansion of services i