In the column called Manager’s Journal at The Wall St. Journal, Bill Castell of GE Healthcare suggests that access to health information may lead to an entirely new model for medicine. I think he’s right, but I think it will take hold and grow outside the U. S. first.

WSJ.com – The Next Generation of Health Care (subscription required)

An "Early Health" model may actually be less expensive. Investment in excellent, primary care, with strong attention to lifestyle, environment, early diagnosis and intervention, stands the best chance of limiting the development of the expensive, debilitating late-stage diseases. The investments required depend less on remote hospitals and more on community-based patient-centric services, enabled by integrated electronic health-care records and the best possible screening and early diagnostic programs. We should constantly ask how do we bring care to the individual, not how do we bring the patient to a medical institution.