The Academic Medical Center: Can It Survive (without) Communications Networking?

摘要

Academic medical centers are vital elements of the American healthcare system and must be preserved. They have recently grown much more complex, diversified and financially threatened. Communications networking is an essential ingredient in permitting academic medical centers to operate in a more efficient, competitive, and successful way. Such systems are expensive, difficult to implement, and require considerable time and resources to build. Initially, internal resistance and even hostility are more frequently encountered than are universal acceptance and support. However, the issue is when and how these communications networking systems will become successful and at what price, not whether we have the luxury of delaying or avoiding them altogether.