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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robert Rose who wrote (64265)	6/23/1999 8:20:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

NetTrends: An E-Prescription For Health Biz SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - "The next Amazon" could be a company that turns America's frustrating health care system into a lean, mean medical machine. Medicine seems to be an Internet market waiting to happen: Lots of money, monumental inefficiency and a need to connect patients, bill-payers and doctors on one big network. An intelligent system could potentially shorten the wait that greets every illness in turn-of-the-century America: Lines to see the doctor, lines to get prescriptions at the pharmacy, long waits on telephone lines to fix insurance problems. Wouldn't it be great if the industry got wired enough to eliminate those endless hours in waiting rooms? Or if it started to wring some of the administrative costs out of a bloated system? Dozens of companies are trying to do that, aiming at an online medicine market that could be worth $11 billion by 2005, according to a new report by brokerage US Bancorp Piper Jaffray. "We are on the brink of radical health care reform -- not of the traditional congressional nature, but driven instead by new emerging technologies," said Daren Marhula, who wrote the report. So far, the Web hasn't cured any incredible ills and its biggest successes have involved putting bookstores, travel agents and stockbrokers out of business. But in all those cases the Internet's transforming power is evident. Merrill Lynch's e-commerce analyst, Henry Blodget, marvels that Amazon.com Inc. <AMZN.O> "went from zero to $1.5 billion in sales in a dead market" in less than four years. In the same time span, online brokers created 7 million new accounts, in a similarly slow-growing business. Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, in his quest to find his own "next Amazon," by pushing his company into new areas, has gone after pet supplies, music and medicine. Amazon recently acquired 40 percent of Drugstore.com, the online pharmacy that plans an initial public offering soon. What's the similarity between books, stocks and health care? All are information-intensive and all involve constant transactions from massive inventories. Amazon likes to point to the 4.5 million titles in its bookstore. Stockbrokers have to keep track of thousands of securities that they need to stock and sell in real time. Already, there are 16,000 health information sites on the Web, says Piper Jaffray's Marhula, and 43 percent of Americans are using the Internet to search for health information. The brokerage industry was stunned by the willingness of people to take over their own accounts with online trading. But frustration with the health care industry will come as less of a surprise. Marhula sees the Web as a way people are regaining control, citing a Piper Jaffray report that 76 percent of Americans agree "people should take primary responsibility for their own health and not rely so much on doctors." "The level of frustration most Americans feel with the health care system germinates from a lack of information and control in care and treatment," he said. Consumers' "desire to educate themselves on health-related topics" will help transform the business, making them more active participants in health issues. Most would like to manage health care benefits online, according to the market research firm CyberDialogue. Another researcher, Yankelovich, found that nearly half of Americans are not satisfied with the availability of their doctors or with the time they spend with them. Enter Dr. Koop and the Internet medicine show. Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop made a big splash (and boosted his personal wealth by $50 million) with an initial public offering that turned his trustworthy name into Internet gold. His Web venture drkoop.com <KOOP.O> (http://www.drkoop.com) is just one of many ventures trying to dispense health information and services over the Web. "There are a lot of Dr. Koops out there," said Merrill's Henry Blodget, who th