Beyond Adam Smith and Marcus Welby: a data system for prudent purchasers. Part 1

Are purchasers selling providers the rope with which providers are hanging them? The President of the Lehigh Valley Business Conference on Health Care believes so because he sees the rhetorical traps of "competition" and "quality" stalling movement toward data acquisition and use. He presents a way out via a provider-focused, microcomputer-based data system. Part 1 of a two-part article.