GE Healthcare’s “Top Trends for ’11” white paper identifies the health IT issues that GE experts expect to shape the coming 12 months. According to the paper, which is coauthored by eHealth Initiative, we can look for the volume and diversity of mobility solutions to “explode”; image exchange to be a value-added services for HIE (health information exchange); and patient engagement through digital channels to reach a tipping point. The report states, “If our Top 11 for ‘11 list is even directionally close, then 2011 will be a year of tremendous activity and transformation.”

Looking beyond 2011 is “The Future of Healthcare:  It’s Health, Then Care” study released by CSC’s (Computer Sciences Corp) Leading Edge Forum. The report discusses how a slew of emerging technologies – from intelligent pills that deliver targeted doses of medication to specific locations in the body to brain implants that prevent seizures, to contact lenses with microchips to detect glaucoma, to bioprinting that creates new skin – will help control costs while improving health by ushering in an era of wellness, self-monitoring, increased and earlier detection of disease, and more effective treatments. These emerging technologies will enable five key industry-changing trends to take hold.

For more on GE’s Top Trends for ’11 and CSC’s “Future of Healthcare” study, visit Perspectives at www.medicaldesign.com. And while you’re there, check out this month’s Reader Poll about hiring trends. Your participation is appreciated.