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Clinical Content
Development |
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Intermountain
Healthcare and GE Healthcare Form Alliance for Clinical Content
Development
Other Topics: Intelligent
Health Services, Clinical Data
Software
GE Healthcare
November 14, 2006
Collaboration will Help Advance the Use of Evidenced Based
Medicine Within Next Generation Electronic Medical Records
Barrington, IL. & Salt Lake City, Utah -- GE Healthcare, a
division of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) today announced
that it has expanded its alliance with Intermountain Healthcare
to include the development of standardized terminology, clinical
knowledge management technology and clinical process content as
part of their multi-year project for the development of an
‘enterprise clinical information system’ built on GE’s
Centricity® Enterprise Solution. Together, GE Healthcare and
Intermountain are working to help enhance patient care by
accelerating the adoption of electronic health records and the
use of evidence-based medicine and other forms of best practice
among health systems in the United States. |
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As part of the
new agreement, GE and Intermountain will work together to
enhance the Centricity Enterprise Solution by developing and
incorporating standardized vocabulary and clinical element
models that will help enable the use of clinical data, such as
protocols for optimal use of antibiotics, providing clinicians
with critical decision support tools at the point of care.
“It’s about bringing science from the research arena to the
bedside quicker,” said Mark Dente, MD and vice president of
Healthcare Solutions for GE Healthcare Integrated IT Solutions.
“Today the amount of time it takes for the widespread adoption
of the latest medical treatments and protocols is entirely too
long, but with the use of information technology we can make the
latest medical information breakthroughs accessible and easier
for physicians, nurses and others to implement.”
According to David Burton, Vice President for Health Delivery
Research at Intermountain Healthcare, standardized clinical
content can improve patient care dramatically. A study published
in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that
although the U.S. spends two-and-one-half times the average
amount spent by other industrialized countries for health care,
Americans may experience worse health outcomes.1 Additionally,
while the U.S. has the most advanced medical technology in the
world, barely half of Americans get appropriate acute, chronic
or preventive care, according to a study published in the New
England Journal of Medicine.2
“It is time we made use of breakthrough science, best clinical
practices and evidence-based medicine to improve patient care
and reduce medical errors by making it available and actionable
for physicians and patients during routine visits,” said Burton.
“Beginning with standardized terminology, we will lay the
foundation of a common language so that physicians, nurses and
other bedside caregivers will have the latest guidelines
available in the clinic and at the bedside.”
“Our vision is to provide an infrastructure that will transform
healthcare from a system that reacts to chronic conditions to
one that manages these conditions proactively and prevents or,
at least, mitigates their long-term complications,” said Vishal
Wanchoo, president and CEO of GE Healthcare Integrated IT
Solutions. “Through the expansion of our agreement with
Intermountain, we are accelerating this vision by developing
technologies that will help enable providers to diagnose
conditions at an earlier stage, tailor treatments more
specifically to the individual patient’s findings and
presentation, and prevent long-term complications, wherever
possible.”
In 2005, GE Healthcare and Intermountain announced a multi-year
technology development collaboration to develop an ‘enterprise
clinical information system’ that takes advantage of
Intermountain’s internationally recognized expertise in clinical
informatics and GE Healthcare’s leading clinical software
applications and market depth and breadth. The agreement will
also include solutions for imaging, perioperative, PACS,
pharmacy, lab and ambulatory electronic medical records.
Since GE Healthcare’s acquisition of IDX Systems Corporation on
January 4, 2006, the GE-Intermountain alliance has worked to
incorporate into the Centricity Enterprise Solution many of the
features developed by IDX, thereby taking advantage of IDX’s
25-year heritage in this field. The IDX acquisition has
accelerated the alliance’s efforts to move Centricity EMR toward
an integrated clinical, financial and administrative system that
supports the creation of lifetime electronic patient records.
The alliance will also include use of the Centricity® Radiology
Solution, a combined picture archiving communications system
(PACS) solution and radiology information system (RIS).
Intermountain plans to use both systems across its 21 hospitals
and its network of ambulatory clinics.
About Intermountain Healthcare:
Intermountain is a nonprofit, integrated health care delivery
and financing system based in Salt Lake City that serves the
health care needs of communities throughout Utah and parts of
Idaho . It has been ranked by Modern Healthcare as the number
one integrated health care delivery system in the country for 5
of the past 7 years (number two the other two years). A central
part of Intermountain’s mission is to provide quality medical
care to residents of its service areas at the lowest necessary
cost.
About GE Healthcare:
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies
that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in
medical imaging and information technologies, medical
diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, and
biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping
clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict,
diagnose, inform and treat disease, so their patients can live
their lives to the fullest.
GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable
healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart
disease, neurological diseases, and other conditions earlier.
Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health"
model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic
disease detection and disease prevention.
Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $15
billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE). Worldwide,
GE Healthcare employs more than 43,000 people committed to
serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than
100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit
our website at www.gehealthcare.com.
1 Banks J. Marmat M, et al., Disease and Disadvantage in the
United States and in England, JAMA 2006; 295; 2037-2045
2 Asch SM, Kerr EA, et al., Who Is at Greatest Risk for
Receiving Poor-Quality Health Care?, N Engl J Med 2006;
354:1147-56.
Contacts:
GE Healthcare
Ana Perez, 262-544-3774
Cell: 262-337-0108
ana.m.perez@ge.com |
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