Mr. Cherny: I think the biggest movement you see for the industry is the funding related to the HITECH Act included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provided 19 billion - upwards of 30 billion if you take some of the other sources involved in the stimulus - to help drive EHR adoption. I apologize if I interchange EHR and EMR - I mean, the same thing. There is a very clear pace that Obama wants to continue on the mandate originally set out by both President Clinton and President Bush before him to try and get the United States to a point where we have every American having some sort of EHR. This is the first time that you've had a significant source of funding to help try and support that drive. So very clearly, technology is a major focus of this administration in terms of the ability to deliver better health care.
TWST: What is the supply-and-demand balance at the moment?
Mr. Cherny: I think that there is a dichotomy between the kind of early activators, the ones that really want - you see the same type of thing in other industries - they are the ones who want to be the first movers and be the hospital in the market that says, "Look at me, I have the best integrated solution," versus some of the laggards, who in large part, tend be older physicians who have been doing things the way they have for 30, 35 years and just don't want to change their methods. I think that those are the ones that haven't adopted this. And the thought process is that the stimulus will help drive to - whether it is to force them or kind of encourage them - to better adopt technology. And I think that they are going to be moving a little slower than the early adopters.
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