"I think people will be demanding this more and more within three years," predicts David Sides, director of implementations for IQHealth, a division of Kansas City-based Cerner Corp., which is a leading provider of electronic health management systems. IQHealth is running the pilot program in partnership with Winona organizations that spearheaded a local Internet access drive in the early 1990s. As a result, 60 percent of the town's residents are online today, about 20 percent more than the national average. An initial phase of Winona Health Online involving less than 200 patients began last year and is now being expanded to embrace as much of the populace as possible. About 80 percent of the community's 50 primary care physicians will participate to varying degrees, according to Sides.
Each patient using the online service has a personal Web page. The patient's health record "self-populates," to include new details such as lab ...
