Authors prescribe information technology to tackle cost/quality dilemmas in health care.

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 1, 1996--Health care organizations must discard traditional business assumptions and join the information technology revolution to ensure future success, according to the authors of PRESCRIPTION FOR THE FUTURE: How the Technology Revolution Is Changing the Pulse of Global Health Care, published by the Knowledge Exchange.

Andersen Consulting authors Gwendolyn B. Moore, David A. Rey and John D. Rollins collectively have more than 70 years of experience helping hundreds of clients in health care and related industries. Rather than examining well-known social, political and ethical issues that ail health care, the authors offer a clear vision of how information technology solutions will enable worldwide access to high-quality care at an affordable price.

Refraining from a Star Wars fascination with gadgetry in favor of pragmatic business vision, the authors cite dozens of examples of how new information technology is already improving health care in dramatic ways. Some of these include:

-- Satellites that enable Mayo Clinic specialists to remain in Minnesota yet treat patients abroad, as well as collaborate with and educate physicians throughout the world.

-- Interactive links that allow patients to recover at home in rural areas yet remain monitored by major medical centers.

-- Software applications for pharmacists and nurses that send up warning flags when harmful drug interactions are likely.

-- Internet medical records that provide immediate access for various care givers, thereby promoting much-needed medical consultations without traditional delays.

-- A seamless communication network linking hospitals, physicians and pharmacies in Norway that is estimated to save providers 30 to 40 staff-years of paper work, travel and administrative detail.

In addition to these examples, an entire chapter of the book is devoted to the story of Joe "Kanga" McAlister, a fictitious Australian ex-football star that encounters the new health care environment in 2001. This chapter illustrates how health care will be radically improved in the quickly approaching future.

"While his character has been invented, our vision of seamless collaboration among providers, insurers, pharmacies and consumers is achievable in the near future," according to Rey, worldwide managing partner of Andersen Consulting's Healthcare Industry practice.

The book begins by examining the dual role of technology: as destroyer of current business patterns as well as an enabler of new solutions. Rather than using information technology simply to speed up existing processes, entirely new strategies are discussed. In this emerging environment, information technology enables the forward-looking health care enterprises to open themselves up to the free flow of people, ideas and information, Rey said.

"We opt for a state-of-the-possible, rather than state-of-the-art, look at the future," explains Moore, a partner in Andersen Consulting's Information & Technology Strategy practice. "Our solutions are workable, but to succeed they will require greater teamwork throughout the entire health industry."

One of the biggest barriers to achieving successful change is mind-set. "The we've-always-done-it-that-way thinking needs to give way to a receptivity of technology-driven processes," she adds. "Our book discusses the various journeys that health organizations must make to stake out a new role for themselves in the brave new world of information technology."

Andersen Consulting's Healthcare Industry practice serves health care and health management clients throughout the world via a coordinated network of more than 1,500 health care-specific professionals in the Americas, Europe, Australia and Asia. The practice currently serves more than 100 major clients worldwide, including integrated health care providers, health insurers, managed-care organizations, policy-making authorities, health care purchasers and others.

Andersen Consulting is a $4.22 billion global management and technology consulting organization whose mission is to help its clients change to be more successful. The organization works with clients from a wide range of industries to link their people, processes and technologies to their strategies. Andersen Consulting has more than 41,000 persons in 47 countries.

CONTACT: Andersen Consulting, Chicago

Stacey A. Jones, 312/507-1577

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