Will doctors soon be consulting patients' records on their Streaks? That is the plan, according to Dell Computers, which aims to load the tablet devices with health care software this fall. But it could be an uphill battle, as the medical industry is notoriously slow to adopt new technology.
The maker of TurboTax and QuickBooks financial software is extending into electronic health-care records with its purchase of Medfusion. Given that 72% of consumers surveyed told Intuit they'd use an online tool for tracking health care, it may be another billion-dollar opportunity.
With most U.S. hospitals and doctors' offices still mired in paper, new federal standards for electronic records seek to resolve this mess -- although they're not without controversy.
