WASHINGTON, April 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE:
IBM) today announced new investments in its US Federal Healthcare
Practice to address the rapidly growing technology needs of public
sector health institutions. The company added big data solutions
for advanced clinical care from its IBM Watson Group, new
collaborations with IBM Research focused on data management and an
expansion of the team with the naming of a Chief Medical
Information Officer for IBM's US Federal practice.
Improving health outcomes, controlling costs, and achieving a
value-based, affordable and sustainable healthcare system have
become economic and social imperatives for governments around the
world. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the US Federal
Government is expected to spend $13.95
trillion on major healthcare related operations and programs
through 2024. To address rising rates of chronic disease and
reduce spending, health systems today face greater expectations for
improved health outcomes and higher quality care.
"IBM has a proven track record in delivering transformational,
value-based healthcare solutions that can increase the quality of
care and lower costs in both the public and private sector," said
Anne Altman, General Manager, IBM US
Federal. "Government leaders recognize that there is a tremendous
opportunity to combine new and existing data sources with
advancements in technology to find innovative ways to build a
sustainable and affordable healthcare system."
As part of today's expansion, IBM will make big data and
cognitive computing solutions available to federal healthcare
clients to help aggregate and analyze clinical information to
improve care and reduce costs. These include IBM Watson Group's
cloud-delivered solutions such as:
- IBM Watson Engagement Advisor to transform interactions
and experiences with patients
- IBM Watson Discovery Advisor to uncover insights into
diseases and innovative therapies, and speed medical research
- IBM Watson Explorer designed to consolidate and
visualize information and help users uncover and share data-driven
insights more easily.
Also, IBM Advanced Care Insights is now available to support
healthcare providers with new insights from clinical, social and
behavioral data. The solution bundle utilizes IBM Content Analytics
and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to extract valuable insight
from physician notes, lab results and other narrative content
within leading electronic health record (EHR) systems to transform
it into actionable information.
For example, at Carilion Clinic, a Virginia health system, IBM has reviewed more
than 2 million patient encounters in collaboration with Epic and
Carilion Clinic. After applying the Advanced Care Insights solution
to these records, they identified 8,500 patients at risk for
developing congestive heart failure in a pilot project that could
lead to early intervention and better care for these patients. The
results were achieved through predictive modeling of data in
Carilion Clinic's electronic health records, including
"unstructured" data such as clinicians' notes and discharge
documents that are not often analyzed. The pilot applied content
analytics and predictive modeling to identify at-risk
patients with an 85 percent accuracy rate. Many of these patients
might benefit from targeted preventive care.
IBM's healthcare team includes more than 300 federal healthcare
consultants and dozens of medical doctors and healthcare
professionals who are focused on care systems transformation. This
broad team supports IBM's Federal Healthcare Practice, which is led
by Vice President Giovanna
Patterson.
Today, IBM announced that it has added Keith Salzman, M.D., to the team as Chief
Medical Information Officer for IBM Federal. Dr. Salzman brings
more than two decades of experience in delivering quality care to
patients and driving the use of medical informatics within the U.S.
Department of Defense military health system located at the Madigan
Army Medical Center in Tacoma,
Washington. Earlier this year, Dr. Salzman received the 2013
Physician IT Leadership Award from the Healthcare Information and
Management Systems Society, a global network of health IT
professionals.
IBM's massive Research arm has committed to bringing researchers
in the fields of data management and cognitive computing to work
with federal clients in healthcare to develop innovative new
solutions to promote greater value in the Federal health system.
IBM holds more than 600 healthcare-related patents in its research
portfolio.
IBM and Healthcare:
IBM works with hospitals, health
systems and life sciences companies to create smarter, more
connected healthcare systems. IBM's technologies and consulting
services help organizations deliver better care with fewer
mistakes, predict and prevent diseases, speed up medical discovery
and empower people to make better choices. Big Data
innovations such as IBM Watson and "stream" computing" are being
used to improve patient outcomes for more personalized and
patient-centric care.
IBM has a 75 year history of working with clinicians,
researchers and public health organizations to help improve patient
care. In 1961, IBM created the first electronic health record
system at Akron Children's Hospital, built on IBM's Ramac 305.
Recently, IBM has partnered with a range of health care
organizations to apply Watson in ways that are helping transform
how medicine is practiced, paid for and taught. For example, IBM is
co-developing an application with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer
Center, AND partnering with WellPoint, WellPoint, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University.
Contact:
Michael
Rowinski
IBM Corporation
720-395-8497
rowinski@us.ibm.com
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SOURCE IBM