(PR Wires) DJ: E-Health Companies Redefining the Healthcare Information
DJ: E-Health Companies Redefining the Healthcare Information Technology
Industry
FBR Publishes Research Report, 'e-Health Portal Blur';
Investor Focus on the Healthcare Information Group Returning
WASHINGTON, June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc.
(NYSE: FBG) announced today that James D. Ackerman, the Healthcare
Information Technology Analyst with its principal broker-dealer, Friedman,
Billings, Ramsey & Co., Inc. (FBR), has published a research report on the
blurring of current healthcare Internet initiatives. The report, The
e-Health Portal Blur, sites the convergence of single Internet portal
strategies as a powerful trend taking shape in the industry, connecting
hospitals, patients, physicians, payors, suppliers, laboratories and
pharmacies.
"Healthcare Information Technology/Internet companies are increasingly
looking to provide connectivity," said Mr. Ackerman. "They are beginning to
merge single portal strategies in an effort to create efficiencies in the
$1.2 trillion national healthcare system."
The two recent merger announcements, Healtheon/WebMD and Synetic/Medical
Manager, have prompted an inflating of valuations of both private healthcare
Internet companies and traditional healthcare IT vendors. FBR believes that
investor focus on the healthcare information group is returning, having
largely dried up with the Y2K-related ills suffered by the group's
traditional vendors.
"While change may not occur immediately, due to healthcare providers'
historically slow rate of adopting technology," continued Mr. Ackerman, "we
are confident that technological enhancements, combined with coordinated,
strategic efforts by new and traditional industry participants, will over
time yield substantial revenue and profit opportunities.
Friedman Billings Ramsey Group, Inc. is a publicly traded, full-service
investment banking and asset management firm. Asset management operations
include proprietary investment partnerships, venture capital and private
equity partnerships, and the FBR family of mutual funds. Its wholly owned
subsidiary, Friedman Billings Ramsey & Co., Inc. (FBR) makes a market in
more than 400 securities and provides research coverage on 430 publicly
traded companies. fbr.com is a division of FBR Investment Services, Inc., a
wholly owned subsidiary of Friedman Billings Ramsey Group, Inc., that will
provide access, as a selling group member, to IPOs underwritten by FBR and
others.
/CONTACT: Melanie Nelson of FBR, 703-312-9623/
14:37 EDT
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