You know, we've all got to thank whatever we might believe in that this latest flu pandemic probably won't be a major killer by historic standards. Yes, sadly, swine flu mortality may end up being twice as high as mortality from a standard flu season, but statistically, 70,000 deaths still doesn't constitute a large swath of the U.S. population.

The thing that ought to bug all of us is that if our health networking plans from years ago had gone right, we conceivably could have tracked disease patterns better, shared resources between hospitals and far-flung clinics, and warned communities on the edge of the pandemic that trouble was coming.

Hey, let's get crazy with it and envision completely wireless healthcare set-ups that could provide complete H1N1 care in the field with total access to patient data no matter where they came from; easy telemedical access to the best specialists in the country (or world) for those with specialized health needs; complete H1N1 information and care for the mildly ill delivered to patients in their homes and so on.

The bottom line is that a mix of the technologies we're already playing with--most notably slightly next-gen networking and data sharing, even on a statewide level--could do so much to track, contain and perhaps, in some cases, slap down the pandemic. It's a crying shame we're still so uncoordinated on the health data networking and sharing level. Such a waste!

The bottom line is that we're missing a huge, real-life, large-scale opportunity to put health data networking's best strengths into play at a moment of national importance. So much we could have learned...but now it's just a bit too late. Oh well, maybe we'll be in better shape the next time a pandemic hits. Yeah, maybe 30 or 40 years will do the trick. - Anne