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IHC, British Group to Develop Medical Data System Software

Posted on: Thursday, 7 July 2005, 15:00 CDT

United Kingdom-based GE Healthcare and Salt Lake-based Intermountain Healthcare announced Wednesday a partnership in developing a sophisticated medical information system that experts say will improve patient care, eliminate medical errors and lead to the creation of more than 100 Utah jobs.

The two organizations have signed a formal agreement that will develop software products that manage a host of information, including a patient's medical history, laboratory studies, vital signs, operative reports, even digital X-ray images.

The 100 jobs, expected to be in place by early 2006, will be made up mostly of software engineers and will include relocations of GE Healthcare personnel as well as local Utah hiring. Marc Probst, a spokesman for IHC, said it is likely the collaboration could eventually result in more than 200 jobs.

"One of the things we find in medicine is the incredible complexity of the data we deal with," said Dr. Charles W. Sorenson, executive vice president of IHC. "The computer enables us to bring all of this complexity together in an organized way."

Already, IHC and GE Healthcare each have their own software systems. For example, IHC, under the direction of Homer Warner, has pioneered computer systems over the past several decades that assist physicians in avoiding adverse drug interactions.

However, by integrating the two systems, a more robust and far- reaching interface is envisioned for electronic records.

"As we go forward we are going to merge those together so five years from now our software will be theirs and theirs will be ours," Sorenson said. "It will take the best of both, put them together and grow from there."

Under the agreement, IHC will capture royalties from future sales of the system to other health-care organizations.

Vishal Wanchoo, chief executive officer of GE Healthcare Information Technologies, said GE chose IHC because of IHC's vast experience in developing information technology to manage health care.

"You talk to anyone else in the health-care industry about clinical informatics and clinical information technology, and IHC is always recognized as the leader," Wanchoo said.

"We have been working on software for the last seven years or so. Really the biggest challenge in this software is taking the clinical knowledge that exists and embedding that into the software. What IHC has is the unique experience of taking the clinical knowledge and actually embedding it into the software."

Wanchoo said what makes IHC's system invaluable is the amount of patient data it contains.

"They've got data there that goes back 30 years -- millions and millions of patient encounters," Wanchoo said. "They are constantly analyzing that data."

For instance, IHC's database can instantly spot improvement patterns among diabetic patients that follow a particular set of care guidelines.

Wanchoo said the first phase of the new medical information system will consist of a pharmacy component that should be available at IHC facilities by the end of this year.

At a news conference at LDS Hospital on Wednesday, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. expressed personal thanks to Warner, who in the 1950s took the initiative to obtain a grant to build an analog computer to track patient data.

"Without the development of the intellectual property here in our state and the nurturing that it took over those years, we wouldn't have anything to offer," Huntsman said. "It all started somewhere in someone's mind, and it started with you, Dr. Warner. This is a perfect example of what I think we as a state ought to be encouraging."

E-mail: danderton@desnews.com

Source: Deseret News (Salt Lake City)

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