Here is an interesting article on health sources on the internet. With 16,000 sites out there it looks like a company really needs something unique that sets it apart. I wonder just who might be able to do that??? Looks like STAY would fall under both categories described in the article. Eric, thanks again.
cbs.marketwatch.com
Dr. Marhula's prescription
A cyber cure for investors
By Zapman, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:24 PM ET Jun 6, 1999 Letters to the editor (A.k.a. the whine rack.)
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- My back was killing me this week. Don't know why. You think it had something to do with the 16-hour days, the mountain bike ride or the jogging on cool, windy San Francisco afternoons?
"Marhula's armed with facts and figures and colorful prose the paints a very pretty picture of how the Internet will transform the healthcare industry."
Rating:
Whatever it was, aspirin didn't help. The ibuprofen didn't help. Rest didn't help. Even the doctor didn't help.
After five days of agony, Zapman surfed the Internet and learned that some folks think ketoprofen is better for certain types of muscle aches and pains than aspirin or ibuprofen. So I tried one of the little white pills and the pain vanished in 20 minutes. Amazing.
Turns out Zapman isn't the only one self-medicating in cyberspace. About 43 percent of the people using the Net seek out health information. And there are -- get this -- 16,000 Web sites trying to explain what's happening to your health.
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Healthy e-health
Zapman didn't make up those numbers. They're from a just-released white paper on e-health written by Daren Marhula, an analyst who specializes in the Web-health sector for U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray.
Folks, whatever ails you, Marhula's bon mots are gonna make you feel a whole lot better about the future of health care. Marhula's armed with facts and figures and colorful prose the paints a very pretty picture of how the Internet will transform the healthcare industry.
Here's one of my favorite sentences in the 40-page report:
"The benefits realized by utilizing the Internet in health care will be rapid and substantial, and the financial rewards from investing early in emerging companies will be significant," Marhula writes.
Specifically, he sees two major classes of Web vendors. The first is the "content & commerce" group supported mostly by ad revenue and retail sales. This cluster includes such companies as OnHealth (ONHN: news, msgs), MediConsult (MCNS: news, msgs), Drugstore.com and PlanetRx. The second is the "applications & infrastructure" group specializing in improving the operations of health care organizations. This includes Healtheon (HLTH: news, msgs), Abaton.com, MedicaLogic and the like.
Solid case
Marhula's reasons for optimism of the first group include great little factoids: 92 percent of Internet users are expected to buy stuff online by next year; Americans spend four times as much per capita on drugs as on books; and there is a new Internet user every 1.67 seconds. Those are also reasons why pharmaceutical companies are expected to pony up $100 million for Web advertising next year.
On the infrastructure group, Marhula looks at how Net-based technologies are likely to help the "antiquated" health care provider leap-frog into the 21st century. For example, he points out 140,000 people die each year from adverse drug reactions, making that the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. Most of those deaths could be avoided if there were an online health record available to show medical histories and drug allergies among patients.
Clearly, there's need for change. Marhula points out that roughly 15 percent of the U.S. GDP -- about $1 trillion -- is spent on health care each year. He estimates a quarter of that "is wasted through the delivery of unnecessary care, performance of redundant tests and procedures, and excessive administrative costs."
Of course, he points out the downside, too. Like, the potential for erosion of profit margin. You just have to witness the price war going between Amazon.com (AMZN: news, msgs), Barnesandnoble.com (BNBN: news, msgs) and Books-a-million (BAMM: news, msgs) to see what could await for generic drugs. Marhula thinks branding will play a big role in separating the winners from the losers there.
Even though it will take some time to work out some details, Marhula has no hesitation about the prognosis for online healthcare. "The Internet will be the single most important development for the health care industry over the foreseeable future and will be an important component of new technology offerings," he concludes.
If that doesn't make you feel better, take two ketoprofen and call your broker in the morning.
Zapman! is safely anonymous and ignores most e-mail. Nothing in Zapman! is intended to be investment advice, nor does it represent the opinion of, counsel from, or recommendations by CBS MarketWatch.
EOM
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