The explosion of the technological needs of hospitals and clinics has triggered a rapid expansion in the product and service offerings of IT firms. Hospital decisionmakers are now IT consumers who are clamoring for workable systems to create an efficient healthcare environment marked by accurate and more focused medical care.

"Local healthcare service providers understand that they need to transform themselves into patient-centered, information- rich organizations," says Doug Del Prete, healthcare subject matter expert, Global Business Services, IBM Philippines.

As part of their smarter planet ideology, IBM also envisions smarter healthcare, wherein health systems are targeted to be interconnected through advanced analytics. "Healthcare does not have boundaries and information should not be siloed," he says.

IBM developed its vast healthcare solutions portfolio using advanced business analytics software tapped from recently acquired Cognos and powered by Big Blue storage and servers. "These technologies can directly support key business priorities, provide insights about performance, behaviors, and outcomes, and help deliver care and services more efficiently," adds Del Prete.

IBM sees all these translating to interconnectivity -- making data available to health professionals across various institutions and transforming them into clinical decision intelligence as these could improve patient outcomes and help lower costs of healthcare.