United States Lags In Health IT Spending

Although the United States spends far more than comparable developed countries on health care, it spends far less on health information technology.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have published data supporting that conclusion in a close analysis of 2004 health care spending data from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The researchers prepared the analysis for the Commonwealth Fund, New York, and, in some cases, they were able to compare U.S. spending to median spending for all countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris.

The United States spent $6,102 per person on health care, compared with an OECD median of $2,571, but it spent far less on health IT, the researchers report.