Healthcare IT to Boom!

Here comes another IT wonderland, as reported by internetnews.com :

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced plans to issue a request for proposals to begin building out what the department hopes will be a national health information network connecting health service providers, government health systems and eventually consumers of health care. The goal is for every health care organization and provider to adopt electronic health records that are interoperable with one another, "so information can be accessed and appropriately shared" within five years, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt has said in numerous stump speeches across the country. HHS is also pushing states to create regional health information organizations (RHIOs) and encouraging health care providers to adopt more transparent pricing structures to help reduce cost and improve value to health care consumers.

This is just an extension of HIPAA and Medicare payment systems. Connect everything. Of course, privacy is just a concept that we should stop being comfortable with, because as we get more connected, privacy means nothing. However, this is a big opp for IT companies and Data Centers.