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Comment by bherms | Hacker News Reader

While I agree that the healthcare industry is ripe for innovation, I think it's a very hard industry to get into. My gf is an ICU nurse here and is constantly telling me how averse to technological change everyone in the hospital is. Nurses and doctors have even quit when the hospital has implemented new software in the past. In addition, a lot of people are jumping on the healthcare bandwagon right now. Lots of great ideas out there, but I'm skeptical that a new system will be taking off on a large scale anytime soon.

Just my two cents, but best of luck to all the startups trying to shake up that industry.

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You bring up a valid argument. Physicians and hospitals are reluctant to adopt new technologies.

Healthcare startups that become successful in the GRAND SCHEME of things will happen because of proper execution. I am currently working on a healthcare startup. I understand all of the issues at hand. For one, the industry and government are focusing on the backend (healthcare provider) technologies, but many companies lack the insight of realizing big change happens on the patient side; although it's not the focus because physicians are the ones "providing the care." See, patients DO trust their doctors, so why not take "advantage" of that. Physicians need to INTERACT more with their patients directly through technology - and here's the kicker - only then can we slowly incorporate new technologies in EMR and hospital systems. Those integrations need to be on top of a layer of a "social" technology interaction with patients. Key word being "on top of" an already established system that engages patients. Now this is how physicians' attitudes will change - because they see patients already using the system.

here is our link: http://www.healthpager.com

As with most industries, sales of healthcare software are made to executives and not to the actual users. Sometimes an outspoken physician will be involved in the sales process, but the final decision is usually made by the CIO/CTO and CFO and is typically made for financial reasons more than anything ("Vendor X promised us that our revenue per patient would increase by Y").

You're mostly right - the one caveat to this is that most providers are not as "revenue focused" as you'd think. Most of them are more focused on the potential outcome ratings improvement that they could see. Often times this means going with Epic, Cerner, Allscripts, eClinicalWorks etc.

The phenomenon going on here is that CIOs don't want to get fired. They're the gatekeepers - and as someone famous put it, "No one ever got fired for buying IBM." Except in this market it's Epic.

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