My annual forecast for health information technology in 2009 is up on iHealthBeat, the online publication of the California HealthCare Foundation that reports on the impact of technology on health care.

Industry Predictions: What Are the Drivers Shaping Health Care IT in 2009? will tell you about the driving forces shaping health information technology for 2009 and beyond. This column can help inform your market and business planning efforts in this very hazy time.

Among the issues you’ll hear about are:

  • The role of health in the larger U.S. macroeconomy
  • Team Obama’s views on investment in health IT
  • The role of open source
  • HIT vendors reinventing — or else
  • The climate of doing more with less
  • The ongoing debate about EHR adoption – and the countervailing forces for them in 2009 and after
  • 2009 as the year that E-Prescribing turbocharges.

Health Populi’s Hot Points: As in the words of your favorite infomercials, just wait! There’s still more! This HIT forecast column was too long for just one single iHealthBeat column. Therefore, my faithful editors have segmented the second half — on consumer-related health IT predictions for 2009 — to appear after 1/1/09. When it’s up on iHealthBeat, Health Populi readers will be the first to know.