NEWS & TRENDS


IEEE Internet Computing, July/August 2009, pp. 6–10

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Unique Identifier Quandary Exemplifies Health Net Obstacles

by Greg Goth

The world’s economy has been profoundly transformed since the US Congress authorized commercial use of the Internet in 1992. Industries such as media, financial services, publishing, and entertainment have undergone epochal revolutions, and online commerce of all types has become mainstream. However, an industry with perhaps the most to offer humanity via ubiquitous networked records—healthcare—lags far behind most others in adopting network technologies.

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