The historic transition to an electronic access of personal funds (from the hands-on interaction with a bank teller) was not easy. Many people resisted the change and worried that computers would make more mistakes than humans and that all sorts of problems would ensue. Of course, today most would strongly resist any movement to retreat to the earlier ways. The main reason is that people have become used to having access to infor­mation about their financials. This has led to more informed and effective decision-making. It should be emphasized that the financial services sector did not adopt technology in order to provide more information to their customers or the users of the financial system. Rather, these initiatives were a direct attempt to cut costs. Inadvertently, this consumer self-management has indeed led to the cost reduction and efficiency gains – not in the technology itself, but by reducing the need for bank hours and personnel. In healthcare, giving patients the means to obtain information for themselves will alleviate the mounting pressures within the system.

Question: What parallels (if any) can be drawn between the banking business (as it was 10, 15, 20 years ago) and healthcare in Canada today? Wayne Gretzky attributes a large part of his success as a hockey player to “going where the puck is going” (NOT where the puck is). Where is the healthcare puck going?

N.B. In the editor's personal experience (almost two decades as a corporate banker, international banker and later on as a bank executive) while the financial sector was relatively quick to adopt information technology in the “back-room”, bankers, for the most part, believed that banking was, and would continue to be, a “face to face”, “one-on-one” business – with them at the center. They believed that their well established role as financial advisor and money guardian and lender would continue unchanged. Information technology changed (and continues to change) all that and revolutionized banking and the ways in which people manage their money.