A pioneering collaboration in healthcare technology will put personal health information at the fingertips of UPMC patients.
UPMC has formed a partnership with Google Health, Carnegie Mellon University and tech partner dbMotion to provide patients with access to their electronic personal health records (PHR) maintained by hospitals and physicians.
Center for Connected Medicine, which opened September of 2009, has jumped on the Google Health bandwagon and is taking it further, providing the latest technology to improve the way that patients and providers communicate, explains William Fera, vice president of medical technologies.
Similar to the online banking revolution, this will give patients unprecedented access to information while allowing them to make sound decisions, reduce costs and keep accurate personal healthcare information.
"We think this is the beginning of a true partnership model between providers and patients," says Fera. "Patients can do things like check their cholesterol while becoming a more active participants in their care."
While PHRs are not new, the technical process of assembling data from a wide range of unconnected "host" technologies had previously eluded healthcare providers. UPMC is now able to provide a flexible, service-oriented platform, developed by Pittsburgh-based dbMotion. The system allows data sharing with Google Health, an online service that gives users the tools build personal health profiles and import records from providers. The system will be launched this spring.
The concept was designed, implemented and tested by six candidates in the Master in Information Systems Management program at the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon.
"The same kind of evolution that happened with online banking will happen in healthcare," adds Fera. "As patients become more comfortable with being partners in their healthcare, you'll see them become more active in the process and staying well."
Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Dr. William Fera, UPMC
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