Recent announcements by Pfizer and GSK that they are making significant cuts in worldwide staffing (estimated at more than 19,000 and 4,000 positions respectively) continue to shake the life science industry.  For many of the researchers included in the RIF (reduction-in-force), fear, uncertainty, and foreboding preceded the move, with the falling axe a confirmation of their deepest fears.  For more experienced researchers, the transition is likely to be painful, since it has been many years since they last tested the waters of the job market.  Strong scientific expertise alone is not likely to make the transition easy, since a large number of job seekers with comparable skill sets are also in the competition.  To succeed, job hunters need to reach beyond their science mindset for other tools in their arsenal, with a focus on more pragmatic and process oriented capabilities.  Project and process management skills, the ability to leverage technology to empower collaboration and improve operational effectiveness, and strong communication skills will be strong differentiators and valued assets in the new life science ecosystem.  With many of the new technical opportunities arising within smaller, more entrepreneurial biotechnology and biopharma companies, individuals that bring a diversity of skills will always be in demand.  Unfortunately for many (especially in the United States), these new opportunities are no longer limited geographically and are expected to arise in emerging players around the world (at a substantial discount to traditional U.S. market salaries).

As analysts here at IDC Health Insights, each year we have the task of looking at the big picture and examining the technologies, trends and drivers that we believe will most heavily impact healthcare organizations in the coming year.  We present these to our clients and friends in the predictions reports and webcasts each January, with separate editions for the U.S. and EMEA regions.  While I focus on the U.S. market, as I was reading through the 2010 EMEA predictions I was struck by both the similarities and the differences between the predictions as identified by our analyst teams in both regions.  I wanted to discuss some of the differences between the two sets of predictions as they are informative and provide an interesting insight into the different healthcare delivery environments across the U.S. and EMEA.  The main difference between the two environments is the existence of major national healthcare systems in EMEA, while the U.S. remains a largely private payer and fee-for-service system. 

eClinicalWorks, Dell and Wal-Mart are all leaders on price and value, and this shared interest has led them to collaborate on a new bundled product offering that will make electronic medical records available to members of Wal-Mart's Sam's Club. The new partnership will bundle eClinicalWorks' unified application, which combines an electronic medical record (EMR) and practice management system, with Dell hardware to be marketed on Sam's Club's Web site. Sam's Club claims to have 200,000 practices among its members, amounting to access to almost 65% of the available market for ambulatory EMRs, based on an estimated 308,900 office-based practitioners in the U.S. in 2006, according to the CDC's April 2008 publication of the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS).

 Unrelenting cost and market challenges are creating new technology movement and opportunities in the US State Medicaid markets.  In 2009, a variety of technology models have emerged for the State Medicaid market, including vendors refreshing traditional legacy models and also introducing flexible COTS options. This week, Molina Healthcare announced a definitive agreement to acquire the Health Information Management (HIM) business of Unisys Corporation. This business unit provides technology solutions and services for the administration of State Medicaid programs.

It's all about the stimulus funding here in Chicago.  Every vendor is trying to craft a story to capture future stimulus funding from the ARRA.  While the EMR vendors are the obvious beneficiaries, vendors from every segment are trying to grab a piece of the pie.  Networking, security, hardware, software and services vendors are all talking about the role they should play in the new digital healthcare environment.  While optimistic about ARRA, end users said over and over again that they lack the details necessary to begin to spend, and they are looking for more guidance and information on the actual certification and reimbursement process.  Several large vendors (Oracle, Cisco, GE) have stepped up with support for the customers by hiring grant writers, and offering capital to help accelerate customer investment.  Never before have large enterprise vendors offered the customers this type of support.  Should end users take advantage of this opportunity?  Should other vendors jump on board with programs like this?  Let us know what you think.