Will the effort to reduce health care costs by comparing treatments ultimately undermine the relationship between doctors and patients?
Requiring hospitals to adopt electronic medical records would reduce their own costs for treating Medicare patients. But for the government to capture the savings, it would in turn have to reduce what it pays the hospitals.
Social media adoption is going up for all generations, said Mr. Owyang. The fact that boomers are increasingly using these tools is a clear indication that it’s not just a fad, he said.
Of the demographics Forrester tracks, the gracefully aging segment is the largest — a hefty 100 million consumers in the United States. That’s billions each year spent on travel, cars, gadgets and more. But the trick for advertisers hoping to attract older consumers, Mr. Owyang said, is to engage them in a way that isn’t too complicated or requires an excessive amount of effort.