The window of opportunity on all of the above is very time sensitive as other vendors will try to bring in their own systems. Hermann Hospital is contracting with the patient software vendor. Although we are thinking about marketing the product if it is successful, now is probably the best time to be making plans for this. Hermann Hospital may be reluctant to sell this product. The UMLS system takes advantage of existing coding systems such as the ICD9 system.
Standardization is a critical issues since so many systems are being developed simultaneously.
Development of incompatible separate systems represents tremendous risks in cost and efficiency. The competition between systems, however, may result in a final product of very high quality. HIN makes large amounts of information readily available to researchers. Currently, information is provided to payors in an inefficient and insubstantial way. HIN would improve this reporting.