External data will become critical to filling in the gaps. The answers to these concerns may come in the form of deeper collaboration with customers, making them partners who must also understand the value they are gaining by contributing data about themselves. Patients would own their EMR information, which they could carry conveniently on a card that would ease integration with HMO, hospital, or other c-commerce participants. However, it may take a long time for current data owners to relinquish their power over patient data, for various legal and economic reasons. Few organizations can boast this ability today.
Buzzwords come and go, but c-commerce is no buzzword phenomenon.
For better or worse, it may also prove to be a line of defense to protect some industries against the dangers of the Napster economy.