Investing in healthcare IT and creating jobs

In an article posted by the Wall Street Journal on January 5th – IBM Chief: IT Investment Will Create Jobs -  IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano presented a report to the Obama transition team stating that a $30 billion  investment in computerizing health-care records, expanding broadband access, and improving the electrical grid could create more than 900,000 U.S. jobs. Considering we spent $2.2 trillion on healthcare in 2007, $30 billion almost seems like small change.

So what are the issues here??

Well first and foremost, IT investments are usually intended to reduce the number of employees and increase internal efficiency.  Will those jobs be short-lived once the IT practices become routine?

Second, the article states that there are very little metrics available (basically none) that site how IT  investments affect job creation. So the report is potentially more speculative than factual?

The good news: the breakdown of the government investment highlights that $10 billion invested specifically in electronic health records could create 212,000 jobs. Not bad.