UPMC's ‘Convergence' Recognized For Improving EHR Access
By Wendy Grafius, contributing writer
The Technology Development Center of UPMC, based in Pittsburgh, has received the Innovator Award from Hospitals & Health Networks, the journal of the American Hospital Association (AHA), for the development of Convergence, a tablet-based platform which eases physician’s access to diverse patient records. Additionally, UPMC has become the nation’s first health delivery system to be named a “Most Wired” facility for the 16th consecutive year.
An early adopter of EMRs, UPMC has invested more than $1.5 billion in the past five years in technology to support clinical excellence and administrative efficiency and has committed $100 million in a multi-year effort to develop advanced analytics capabilities across its system. “As we strive to increase quality, lower costs, and enhance value, technology is playing a bigger role in healthcare than ever before,” said Daniel Drawbaugh, CIO at UPMC. “Through UPMC’s Technology Development Center (TDC), we are determined to lead the way in creating the innovative technologies that are necessary to transform not only UPMC but the entire healthcare system.”
The TDC’s novel solution, Convergence, is a tablet-based platform that pulls patient data from a variety of electronic health record silos and puts them together in a meaningful and visually appealing record. Using a Windows-based tablet, Convergence allows users to move seamlessly between existing legacy systems and new applications and provides users with an evidence-based treatment guide that includes lists of medications and trend analysis. “Now we can spend more time with patients and less time ‘playing detective’ and piecing together the patient’s story,” said Rasu Shrestha, M.D., VP of medical information technology.
With its sleek graphics and touchscreen display for patient education, the solution has been piloted since February in the cardiology department of UPMC Presbyterian in Oakland, PA. Now, officials at UPMC plan to distribute 2,000 Surface 3 tablets equipped with Convergence to physicians in several of the health system’s facilities across western PA. Plans for the future call for securing an early adopter outside of the network by the end of this year in order to launch Convergence nationally as a commercial product.
As a “Most Wired” facility, UPMC met rigorous criteria in infrastructure, business and administrative management, clinical quality and safety, and clinical integration. “The ‘Most Wired’ data show that shared health information allows clinicians and patients to have the information they need to promote health and make the most informed decisions about treatments,” said Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the AHA.
UPMC is a world-renowned, nonprofit healthcare provider and insurer that operates more than 20 academic, community, and specialty hospitals in western PA with centers of excellence in transplantation, cancer, neurosurgery, psychiatry, rehabilitation, geriatrics, and women’s health. More than 5,500 affiliated physicians, including 3,500 UPMC-employed physicians, additionally provide care at over 400 clinical locations as well as at rehabilitation, retirement, and long-term care facilities. With 62,000 employees, UPMC is the largest non-governmental employer in PA. U.S. News & World Report ranked the health system as No. 10 on its “Honor Roll of America’s Best Hospitals”.
SOURCE: UPMC