IBM's view of the Moffitt collaboration - part of a larger "global" picture of advancing medicine...
Nice to know DNAPrint Genomics fits in here somehow...
IBM launches $250 million global healthcare initiative
New collaborations with Duke University Health System and H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute aim to transform medicine
Issue Date 19 Feb 2004
Location Somers, NY
IBM today announced a major healthcare initiative to help healthcare providers and payers manage costs, reduce medical errors, and deliver better patient care. The initiative will infuse an estimated $250 million of investments into IBM's healthcare business over the next three years for new hiring of healthcare specialists, solutions development, research and development projects, IBM Business Partner collaborations, and other programs.
Highlights include:
* Groundbreaking collaborations with Duke University Health System and the Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute;
* New healthcare solutions designed to support information-based medicine initiatives and bring safer, more efficient approaches to healthcare;
* The formation of the IBM Center for Healthcare Management;
* Creation of the IBM Research Healthcare and Life Sciences Institute; and
* New IBM Clinical Transformation consulting practice and IBM Information Based Medicine business unit.
"The healthcare industry is under tremendous pressure to address patient safety, quality of care and cost issues," said Dr. Caroline Kovac, general manager of IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences. "IBM is deeply committed to developing the on demand solutions and offering the consulting expertise and business insights that can help the healthcare industry transform. Working with IBM Business Partners, we can help bring catalytic change and help the industry deliver on the promise of better patient care."
New Collaborations
Duke University Health System and IBM are collaborating on a unique on demand information management system. Duke On Demand will be used to help speed critical information to researchers and clinicians that can facilitate identification of new, more effective treatments for diseases such as breast cancer and heart disease.
The system is being designed to integrate clinical data, such as patient records and lab tests, with research findings about genes and proteins to help give doctors a more complete "personalized" picture of a patient's medical condition, while protecting patient confidentiality. The solution also can be used to electronically locate and initially screen potential candidates for clinical trials and for physician training.
"Duke and IBM share a vision around prospective medicine," said Dr. Ralph Snyderman, Chancellor for Health Affairs, Duke University Medical Center, and Executive Dean of Duke School of Medicine. "IBM has made a large-scale commitment to cutting-edge technology in the life sciences. By mobilizing our respective resource bases and complementary skills, together we can make a big difference in the delivery of healthcare in the 21st century."
The H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute and IBM are collaborating on a disease management system designed to help researchers and clinicians screen patients at risk for diseases and identify potential clinical trial participants faster. The new Clinical Research Data Warehouse, part of Moffitt's Total Cancer Care program, will focus initially on lung cancer and will integrate data from more than 30 disparate databases throughout the hospital and research center. Moffitt is located at the University of South Florida and has more than 280 physicians, 600 researchers, and a network of 13 affiliate hospitals throughout Florida.
New Healthcare Offerings and Information Resources
A key focus of IBM's healthcare initiative will be the development of consulting practices, information resources, and customized industry solutions to help transform hospitals and small and medium healthcare providers, accelerate medical research, and optimize processes to help lower healthcare costs. Each new solution or information resource will leverage the healthcare industry insight and consulting methodologies of IBM Business Consulting Services and the deep technology skills and resources of IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences.
Among the practices, information resources, and customized solutions announced today are:
-- Simulation and Modeling Services for the Safer and Leaner Healthcare Provider, leading processes, strategies and methodologies, including optimization modeling and simulation tools, to help hospitals improve resource allocation, utilization and planning. These customized decision-support services measure the performance of both clinical and administrative processes, identify cost parameters, and offer insights into "best practices" from other industries that can help healthcare providers reduce medical errors and improve patient care quality, while reducing costs and streamlining operations.
-- IBM's Aligned Clinical Environment, a solution that helps healthcare providers integrate, analyze and manage complex and disparate clinical, research and administrative data from multiple systems. The Aligned Clinical Environment provides business insights, tools and methodologies for creating an information-on-demand environment that can help improve clinical quality, safety and patient care. For example, the Healthcare Collaborative Network, a consortium of public and private sector organizations, including hospitals and health systems, is using the information technology infrastructure and services from the Aligned Clinical Environment to demonstrate the feasibility and value of a nationwide, real-time surveillance system that can help detect, respond to, and report adverse healthcare and drug events and improve healthcare quality. The system, which is now operational, includes automated reporting of infectious disease outbreaks.
-- IBM Center for Healthcare Management, a resource for information and dialogue on critical issues facing healthcare payers and providers. The new center will sponsor discussion forums on topics ranging from disease surveillance to healthcare collaboration and data management for informed healthcare decisions. It will also support the development of research reports and case studies on innovative industry approaches to improving quality and efficiency.
-- IBM Research Healthcare and Life Sciences Institute, which will work with IBM's eight research labs around the world to drive invention and technology innovation specifically targeting the healthcare, life sciences and the pharmaceutical industries.
-- IBM's Clinical Transformation Practice, which brings together consultants who are also clinicians, including physicians and nurses, and hospital administrators, with business intelligence experts, and leading quality experts to help clients who span a broad spectrum of healthcare areas.
-- IBM's Information Based Medicine Business Unit, formed to bring greater focus to the critical role advanced information technologies play in the emerging field of personalized medicine. Information-based medicine uses information technology to help doctors deliver more personalized healthcare, making available data such as genetic profiles, medical images and other research that can be integrated with clinical information to give a more complete picture of factors that may influence a patient's medical condition.
About IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences
IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences brings together IBM resources, including information technology, deep industry insights, and research expertise, to help clients develop and deliver safer, more affordable and more effective diagnostics, drugs and medical care.
