OPEN MINDS The Behavioral Health & Social Service Industry Analyst Cover Story I am fascinated with emerging treatment models that use new technologies: smart cards, personal health records, virtual reality, avatars, individually-designed drugs, brain scans to monitor those drugs, deep brain implants, synthetic body replacement parts, robots, and more. To me, they represent “next generation” health care — akin to the impact of the invention of antibiotics. But, as we are preparing for the 2008 Institute for Behavioral Healthcare Informatics, I was struck by the gap between available and emerging technologies and the process that payers and provider organizations use . . .

OPEN MINDS The Behavioral Health & Social Service Industry Analyst Cover Story I am fascinated with emerging treatment models that use new technologies: smart cards, personal health records, virtual reality, avatars, individually-designed drugs, brain scans to monitor those drugs, deep brain implants, synthetic body replacement parts, robots, and more. To me, they represent “next generation” health care — akin to the impact of the invention of antibiotics. But, as we are preparing for the 2008 Institute for Behavioral Healthcare Informatics, I was struck by the gap between available and emerging technologies and the process that payers and provider organizations use . . .