Home diagnosis

Healthcare is the new frontier for electronics systems, but it is taking longer to colonise than many players expected. Two sets of difficulties have emerged. First, who will pay? Providers be they monolithic public health services or private insurers are wary of IT-related investments when they face a combination of budget cuts and the prospect of high capital spending on infrastructure. The fact that some recent IT projects have gone badly has not helped. The National Health Service Programme for IT was judged to have provided "little clinical functionality to date" as recently as 2009. Second, there is the approvals regime. Healthcare providers are expected to be risk-averse. As a result, debate still rages as to which devices should be seen as merely providing information (and subject to a more liberal approvals process) and which are diagnostic (with more rigourous inspection).