Healthcare IT will struggle with Obama reforms

Beverley Head
Tuesday, 23 March 2010 16:59

Business IT - Technology

America's healthcare sector will struggle to overhaul its IT systems in order to be ready for President Obama's healthcare reforms which were passed this week.

Speaking at the Mastering SAP Technologies conference being held in Sydney, Raghavendra (Rao) Subbarao, the global practice head of solutions architecture for Hospira, a global pharmaceutical and medication delivery company, said that despite the difficulties, the sector would throw 'money, people and technology' at the problem in order to prepare for the changes.

'Because it's regulatory we will have to make it happen,' said Subbarao. (Rao Subbarao responded to this article on 3.4.10 and his comments are provided below, in full)

The new US healthcare package will force health insurers to overhaul their systems, place increased demand on drug companies and medical product makers, and also deliver millions of new clients to companies like Hospira. Employers will also have to review their employee health care plans and supporting IT systems.

Subbarao confirmed that for companies like Hospira; 'One of the biggest challenges is the constant regulatory changes in our sector.'

He said organisations which properly understood their business processes would be better placed to make the changes.  But even Hospira, which has had a business focus process driven by Subbarao, has found this can still be difficult.

He said that changes had recently been made to the MSDS, or Material Safety Data Sheet, regulations. The MSDS is the sheet of paper shipped with most medications which indicates how it should be used, and details any side effects that may arise, for example.