Lots of companies that could be considered novices in the area of health IT are flooding into the field, seeking riches from a fast-growing industry--not to mention chasing all the billions of federal stimulus dollars supporting EMR adoption. One such company is computer-maker Dell, which last year plunked down $3.9 billion to acquire Perot Systems, which claims about half its revenue from healthcare. 

The new Dell Perot Systems now pretty much provides all the computing hardware and IT consulting expertise for about 300 hospitals, including all 49 owned by Tenet Healthcare, the Austin American-Statesman reports, and business is booming. "There is more demand than we know what to do with right now," Dell healthcare chief Jamie Coffin tells the newspaper.

Round Rock, Texas-based Dell has forged partnerships with numerous healthcare software vendors and is simulating health information exchange in the company's new Public Solutions Laboratory to test various configurations and transactions. Dell also is marketing a "virtual desktop" that allows physicians to pull up the applications and data they need within a hospital at the nearest computer, saving doctors up to an hour a day in rounding time.

For more on Dell's healthcare strategy:
- check out this Austin American-Statesman story

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