By  Diana Manos, Senior Editor

　　BENTONVILLE, AR – Retail giant Wal-Mart not only plans to invest in healthcare IT, but also intends to apply some of what it has learned in the retail marketplace to help lower healthcare costs for its employees - and the nation, a top Wal-Mart executive said Friday.

　　“It occurred to us that there are lessons to be learned from other sectors that could be applied to healthcare,” said Carolyn Walton, vice president of the information systems division for Wal-Mart.

　　Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. recently announced it would partner with the University of Arkansas and Blue Cross Blue Shield to conduct research on how to advance healthcare IT in the United States.

　　Wal-Mart, as the lead strategic partner, says it will pledge $1 million over five years to fund a new Center for Innovation in Health Care Logistics at the University of Arkansas.

　　The purpose of the center will be to create broad interest in the speedy adoption of best practices, Walton said.

　　Prior to developing the project, Wal-Mart met last year to discuss the challenges in U.S. healthcare with key leaders from doctors and nurses associations, hospitals, clinics, academia, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, Walton said.

　　“We're not experts by any means,” Walton said, but Wal-Mart wanted to gain some understanding of the complexities and limitations of healthcare delivery and ways that it might help.

　　The result was Wal-Mart recognized that some of its IT advances in moving inventory could be applied to healthcare IT, Walton said.

　　“Moving things around involves the use of a lot of standards, numbering and bar codes, but it's not rocket science,” Walton said. The healthcare sector could use some of the basic methods already applied in the private marketplace to manage and diagnose an efficient supply chain.

　　Wal-Mart is working with Blue Cross and other organizations to establish an advisory board for its research center and a way to sustain the project after Wal-Mart's initial seed money runs out. The board will also shape an agenda, priorities and a focus for the project, Walton said.