Sam Lanfranco wrote:
> A consultant to a major
> institution recently offered the following - which I paraphrase -
>
>    Health Informatics for developing counties is a good idea since it
>    will promote the U.S. export of diagnostic and information mangement
>    systems, helping the balance of payments, and the longer production
>    runs will bring down costs in the U.S. reducing the U.S. health care
>    crisis.
>
> The statement, like a lot of others, is a reasonable place to open up a
> discussion. Hopefully, it is not the conclusion of the discussion.

I have argued with many of the early proponents of telemedicine in the
US that the "global health informatic infrastructure" needs to be a
balanced and reciprocal exchange of value, respecting the differences in
international approaches to health and also understanding the in human
ecologic terms the north - south disparities are non-sustainable, hence
anti-health.

The quote above, however, provides an insight into the policy mechanics
within the US.  The origins of computation were in the US military (i.e.
the Manhattan Project). The origins of the internet were in US military
research (ie. DARPA Net).  Now the driver of US technology policy is
"dual use" and "conversion".  To be effective in the US policy arena one
needs to understand these parameters.

Most of the developed world is arguably more healthy per unit of health
enterprise than America.  Hence, I see a great market for international
health promotion experts to "sell" in the US
Paul Lee
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