Healthcare IT is in the spotlight this week in Atlanta, Georgia as one of the year’s biggest tech expos gets underway. As part of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s annual meeting, GE is showcasing a range of projects, including today’s announcement about Qualibria, an innovative computerized system that provides doctors with real-time clinical data and faster access to current research — right at a patient’s side. It’s been developed using three decades of clinical information from the Intermountain Healthcare system of hospitals — and through a partnership with the renowned Mayo Clinic.
GE Healthcare’s partnership with Intermountain — which is explained in the video at left (click the icon at the bottom right of the screen to expand it) — comes as the Utah- and Idaho-based hospital system is drawing increased attention for its pioneering work in healthcare IT. As The New York Times recently noted in its in-depth look at Intermountain, “Making Health Care Better,” their “evidence-based” care is a mix of their rigorous treatment protocols, detailed measurement of actions and results, and electronic medical records designed to help more patients while helping hospitals become more efficient.
Marc Probst, Chief Information Officer of Intermountain Healthcare, says of today’s announcement — which targets a formal launch of the system later this year: “We partnered with GE to build Qualibria because we needed an innovative platform that would continue Intermountain’s history of clinical quality improvement while allowing us to share clinical best practices with other organizations who have a passion for improving their performance. We’re very proud of the contributions we’ve made to Qualibria and we believe that it will allow our institution and countless others to achieve new levels of quality.”
Vishal WanchooIn the audio clip below, Vishal Wanchoo, president and CEO of GE Healthcare IT, explains the partnership and how it fits in with GE’s healthymagination initiative:
As Dr. Graham Hughes, who is Vice President of Product Strategy for GE Healthcare’s Enterprise IT Solutions division, explained in a demo of the system during its pilot phase in October, a doctor who is making patient rounds can pull up lab results as needed rather than go to each patient’s records. While checking on one patient, alerts are signaled when a particular reading is out of normal range — and behind the buttons is information on each patient, including case histories and best care recommendations. It can enable even the smallest and most remote healthcare clinics to evaluate their current approach to patient care against constantly evolving standards. The end result is that patients everywhere may benefit from current treatment options.
GE also announced today that Mayo Clinic has agreed to an expanded collaboration on Qualibria. For the last two years, Mayo has helped build the system’s medical terminology management tools. The result is a platform that will help share clinical knowledge and best practices across organizations in a new, open architecture.
* Read today’s announcement about Qualibria
* Read today’s announcement from this week’s HIMSS conference
Learn more about our other Mayo and Intermountain partnerships in these GE Reports stories:
* “A breakthrough decision support solution for docs”
* “Inside the revolution at Intermountain Healthcare”
* “Mayo Clinic launches Intel/GE Home Health tech study”
* “Mayo Clinic team-up lets docs ‘feel’ livers with imaging”
* “GE and Intel team-up on home health tech”
* “London calling: Intel-GE health alliance expands to UK”
