At least half those costs are in administration and compliance, which she said was essentially wasted money. The portal is now trying to evolve from a low-revenue banner ad business into new areas, such as recruiting patients for clinical trials. It has also moved towards providing actual care over the Internet. Basically, the site will suggest what treatment you should get. For now, you'll still have to go to the doctor's office to get a diagnosis, although that may be changing too.
Some people think it's unethical for a physician to make a remote diagnosis.
Content is King Another e-business related to biotechnology that's rapidly evolving is the market for scientific and medical information. Elsevier publishes 1,200 scientific and medical journals, including The Lancet, and runs two Web Portals, BioMedNet and ChemWeb . But Hughes' main focus was on the importance of offering researchers both comprehensive and reliable information. That makes strategic sense, since Elsevier's bedrock is its peer-reviewed journals, where articles are sent out and scrutinized by experts before they are published. However, peer review in biology could soon go the way of the Do-Do bird.