One of the more interesting features of last week's HIMSS conference was the speech by Craig Barrett, the Chairman of Intel Corporation and a member of the American Health Information Community.

Why so? Barrett is an outsider to healthcare industry, "semi-retired", financially independent and not seeking a political office. This means we can count on him to tell us "as it really is". Mr. Chairman does not mince words or hide his disgust with the current state of affairs.

Consider these talking points from his speech and interview:

• The healthcare industry has to stop thinking it can operate inefficiently with substandard results because it thinks it's different and unique from other industries
• Barrett challenged doctors to examine how their refusal to adopt health IT contradicts the Hippocratic Oath, since its use would help them make better medical decisions, achieve better results and make their patients happier
• ''Doctors say 'I won't do this unless you pay for it' and there are people on AHIC who take that position,'' Barrett said. ''No other industry has discussion about 'Who's going to pay for putting a computer in my facility to make me work better?' ... That attitude is just so different from the attitude you see in any other industry.''
• He called healthcare costs ''a tax'' on every business in the United States, and that unless the healthcare system becomes more efficient, it threatens to drag every other industry down with it. Barrett added that better efficiency and higher quality through the use of technology is the answer to this problem, and that healthcare must stop dragging its feet on investing and implementing it
• Barrett predicted that there would be two factors driving change: consumer empowerment, where patients vote with their feet to choose high-quality providers who use health IT while abandoning those who deliver inferior care; and the purchasing power of ''the two 800-pound gorrillas'' in the room -- major employers and government

These are harsh words that are sure to rub most participants in the healthcare value chain the wrong way. Apparently Barrett is not trying to act as a "convener of stakeholders" and is content with expressing outrage and emphasizing sticks over carrots.

Guess what? Today it is Barrett, but if the industry does not get its act together next it will be the Congress to pull out the sticks and club down the "tax on American competitiveness".

Rethinking the modern meaning of Hippocratic Oath, raised by Barrett (and Brailer) has inspired the name of this blog: "What Would Hippocrates Do?". The author has to attest that quite a few commenters questioned this whole premise. But it is clear that the healthcare purchasers, including consumers & employers are asking fundamentally similar questions and are not shy to flex their market powers.

Health IT market pressures may not have fully materialized yet, but those who plan to ignore them will do it at their own peril. Early adopters will win. Laggards will lose and rightly so. Industry is set for change.

Quotes via Modern Healthcare and iHealthBeat.