AMA Gets Into Health IT

The American Medical Association is getting into the health IT business.

The association is testing a new on-line portal that will serve as a virtual marketplace for buyers and sellers of electronic health records and practice management applications, reports Modern Healthcare. The venture, called Amagine, will charge health IT vendors a fee to have a presence on the site. Would-be buyers of those wares would have access to the portal by subscription.

The AMA acknowledges that it seeks to capture a piece of the fast-expanding health IT market (and the $27 billion in federal funds set aside to stimulate it), yet it insists that financial gain is not its prime motivation.

"Yes, it will be a business line for the American Medical Association," Robert Musacchio, AMA senior vice president of business products and services, told Modern Healthcare. "However, the reason why we got into this is really about engagement and wanting to provide physicians with some help."

The AMA has signed up "a handful of technology companies," among them NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Ingenix, DrFirst, Quest Diagnostics, WellCentive and Dell. The AMA is coordinating with the Michigan State Medical Society to pilot the project in Michigan.

The AMA says it will not endorse products on its portal, yet it seems likely that consumers will interpret companies' presence on the site as a tacit approval. Vendors are betting that their association with an AMA-vetted site will pay dividends. They are "clamoring to be a part of it," reports Modern Healthcare.

What remains to be seen is what AMA's virtual imprimatur will mean to consumers, particularly if vendor screening is less than rigorous.

"What I don't want [on the site] is a solution that's been developed by the famous 'two guys in a garage' that may not be here tomorrow," Musacchio says.