Login

Bala Iyer

Wednesday, September 08, 2010 6:51 PM
     

Current Articles | RSS Feed RSS Feed

Sharing medical records

Posted by Bala Iyer on Thu, Nov 29, 2007 @ 09:18 AM

I was recently discussing a healthcare case in my MBA class and it got me thinking about systems related issues prevelant there. A key challenge facing this industry seems to be in sharing medical records and improving quality.  The nut of the case is that patients have their information trapped in many different systems within the industry thereby reducing the quality of care. While sharing this information is a goal, stakeholders are not clear on who owns and controls the flow of information. A recent article described two approaches to the problem. The first one labeled personal health records (PHR) wants the patient to own and manage the information. Microsoft with its HealthVault, Steve Case with RevolutionHealth, Google talking about its online platform for its health offering  are some examples of this approach. The second approach is being called Electronic medical record (EMR). Using this approach, existing systems are modified to interoperate with one another to share information. This would call for the emergence of standards. So far, the EMR approach has been predominant, as can be seen from documented case studies, but hasn't delivered on its promise for a unified patient record. Maybe the PHR approach holds some hope.


Comments (0 )
Submit to Digg digg it |  Add to delicious  delicious | Submit to Reddit reddit 
s



Ads in PDF files

Posted by Bala Iyer on Thu, Nov 29, 2007 @ 07:30 AM

Adobe has teamed up with Yahoo! to serve contextual ads on PDF files (see link). I wonder why it took so long to do this? In the old model, pdf documents carried static ads that were created with the content as part of the page copy. In the new version, ads are dynamically matched to the content and displayed at view time by ad engines. In this three way dance between the publisher, Adobe and Yahoo!, everyone benefits. Publishers are able to bring more content by subsidizing them with ads, Adobe gets more revenue from its platform and Yahoo! gets to serve more ads to users. The users could potentially benefit the most by having access to more free content.


Comments (0 )
Submit to Digg digg it |  Add to delicious  delicious | Submit to Reddit reddit 
s



What's up with the ITES market?

Posted by Bala Iyer on Thu, Nov 22, 2007 @ 10:22 AM

Next summer, I am planning to take a team of MBA students on a trip to India and visit with major IT vendors to study the IT enabled services (ITES) market. The IT services market, in my opinion, has become very confusing for customers. From a macro perspective, the rupee is getting stronger and eroding the cost arbitrage value proposition. In addition, finding employable resources has become very difficult -- supply is simply not meeting the demand. This is also increasing the cost structures and impacting the cost arbitrage equation. As a result, customers have to revisit their initial decisions and see if the value is still there under the existing arrangements. From the supply perspective, the Indian IT vendors have moved from application development to process outsourcing to services. They are going global by opening centers all over the world with India being the center of gravity. The NA service vendors have moved from being pure service companies to supporting the entire stack. Their business model now includes centers in India and other parts of Asia. As a result, most of the vendors end up offering similar services across all layers of the stack using a blended delivery model. As a customer, how does one evaluate them and source work? Has IT become commoditized that you can base decisions on volume, quality and price? Along with my students, I'm hoping to search for answers to these questions.


Comments (0 )
Submit to Digg digg it |  Add to delicious  delicious | Submit to Reddit reddit 
s



Inter-Organizational networks

Posted by Bala Iyer on Thu, Nov 15, 2007 @ 09:17 AM

A recent post in knowledge at wharton on innovation networks makes me wonder about the types of inter-organizational networks being used today and the purpose they serve. I have seen examples of supply chain management networks, software product networks, board interlocks, and as the article points out, innovation networks. I wonder if there is a good taxonomy out there?


Comments (0 )
s



What! No Google phone?

Posted by Bala Iyer on Tue, Nov 06, 2007 @ 08:44 AM

There was much anticipation for the announcement of a Google phone. What Google announced instead was Android and Open Handset Alliance. Android is the open software platform based on Linux that Google will allow it partners to use to deliver services. As a result Android should compete with Palm OS, Apple, Microsoft, Symbian and RIMM. The ~30 member alliance is comprised of device manufacturers, component manufacturers, software companies, and carriers that have committed to working with Android.
With over a billion mobile handsets our there that are being increasingly used for search and commerce, this is the new frontier for Google ads. If this project is able to spur interoperability across these devices, it means more search queries from users and this is a good thing for Google :-) Given that Apple has a proprietary OS that is key to their strategy, I wonder if they would consider Android as a threat from their partner.


Comments (0 )
Submit to Digg digg it |  Add to delicious  delicious | Submit to Reddit reddit 
s



© 2010 www.balaiyer.com