A new collaboration between the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Microsoft plans to develop an IT solution that will enhance interoperability of medical devices in intensive care settings. The goal is to provide improved health data analytics that can help clinicians identify key trends aimed at preventing injuries and complications that can result from medical care.
Currently, a pilot programme ("Project Emerge") of the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality uses technology to restructure a hospital's workflow in an effort to eliminate the most common causes of preventable harm and promote better patient outcomes. The project seeks to eliminate all harms, including medical complications such as blood clots and pneumonia, as well as emotional harms like a lack of respect and dignity.
In collaboration with Microsoft, Johns Hopkins plans to revamp Project Emerge to better serve patients in intensive care units (ICUs). Johns Hopkins will supply the clinical expertise for the build, while Microsoft will provide advanced technologies, including Azure cloud platform and services, as well as software development expertise. Using Azure, the improved solution will collect and integrate data from several modern devices and provide critical analytics, computing, database, networking, storage, and Web functions. The final product will enable physicians to see trends in a patient's care in one centralised location and let them access critical patient information from any hospital-approved, Windows device. Pilot projects are estimated to begin in 2016.
"Today's intensive care patient room contains anywhere from 50 to 100 pieces of medical equipment developed by different manufacturers that rarely talk to one another," says Prof. Peter Pronovost, senior vice president of patient safety and quality for Johns Hopkins Medicine and director of the Armstrong Institute. "We are excited to collaborate with Microsoft to bring interoperability to these medical devices, to fully realise the benefits of technology and provide better care to our patients and their families."
Four million patients are admitted to ICUs in the U.S. each year, and between 210,000 and 400,000 patients die annually from a potentially preventable complication, making medical errors the third leading cause of death, behind heart disease and cancer.
"Johns Hopkins and Microsoft share a common vision of providing better care to more people," says Michael Robinson, vice president of U.S. health and life sciences at Microsoft. "Through our joint work, Johns Hopkins and Microsoft will empower health professionals with easy-to-consume, data-driven insights, allowing them to focus more on patients and less on technology and process."
This initiative is one of several collaborations between the two organisations intended to foster innovative, health-based technologies. Earlier this year, Microsoft became a sponsor of FastForward, Johns Hopkins' new business incubator designed to accelerate product development for health IT start-up companies. Johns Hopkins also recently joined Microsoft's Partner Network, which provides enhanced services to the university.
Source: Johns Hopkins University
Image credit: Flickr.com
Currently, a pilot programme ("Project Emerge") of the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality uses technology to restructure a hospital's workflow in an effort to eliminate the most common causes of preventable harm and promote better patient outcomes. The project seeks to eliminate all harms, including medical complications such as blood clots and pneumonia, as well as emotional harms like a lack of respect and dignity.
In collaboration with Microsoft, Johns Hopkins plans to revamp Project Emerge to better serve patients in intensive care units (ICUs). Johns Hopkins will supply the clinical expertise for the build, while Microsoft will provide advanced technologies, including Azure cloud platform and services, as well as software development expertise. Using Azure, the improved solution will collect and integrate data from several modern devices and provide critical analytics, computing, database, networking, storage, and Web functions. The final product will enable physicians to see trends in a patient's care in one centralised location and let them access critical patient information from any hospital-approved, Windows device. Pilot projects are estimated to begin in 2016.
"Today's intensive care patient room contains anywhere from 50 to 100 pieces of medical equipment developed by different manufacturers that rarely talk to one another," says Prof. Peter Pronovost, senior vice president of patient safety and quality for Johns Hopkins Medicine and director of the Armstrong Institute. "We are excited to collaborate with Microsoft to bring interoperability to these medical devices, to fully realise the benefits of technology and provide better care to our patients and their families."
Four million patients are admitted to ICUs in the U.S. each year, and between 210,000 and 400,000 patients die annually from a potentially preventable complication, making medical errors the third leading cause of death, behind heart disease and cancer.
"Johns Hopkins and Microsoft share a common vision of providing better care to more people," says Michael Robinson, vice president of U.S. health and life sciences at Microsoft. "Through our joint work, Johns Hopkins and Microsoft will empower health professionals with easy-to-consume, data-driven insights, allowing them to focus more on patients and less on technology and process."
This initiative is one of several collaborations between the two organisations intended to foster innovative, health-based technologies. Earlier this year, Microsoft became a sponsor of FastForward, Johns Hopkins' new business incubator designed to accelerate product development for health IT start-up companies. Johns Hopkins also recently joined Microsoft's Partner Network, which provides enhanced services to the university.
Source: Johns Hopkins University
Image credit: Flickr.com
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healthmanagement, health IT, patient safety, medical devices, preventable harms, interoperability, ICU
A new collaboration between the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Microsoft plans to develop an IT solution that will enhance interoperability of medical devices in intensive care settings.
