Peking University People’s Hospital Partners with IBM to Build China’s First Evidence-Based Patient Centric Care System

July 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

BEIJING, July 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Peking University People’s Hospital (People’s Hospital) have built an evidence-based patient centric care (ePC3) system to enable cooperation and resource sharing among medical services providers for improved patient care.

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The ePC3 system, developed by scientists at IBM Research – China and People’s Hospital, will provide better clinical decision support at the point of care by offering a comprehensive overview of a patients’ health data as well as best practices from previous diagnoses, treatment and research. As a result, it has the potential to reduce medical errors and enable better interactions with patients and increase physicians’ efficiency, thus making healthcare services more accessible and affordable to patients.

The ePC3 system is a part of IBM’s healthcare efforts in which IBM researchers and scientists collaborate with medical practitioners to develop new technologies and business processes to improve patient care. IBM today announced a global initiative, valued US$100 million, where IBM will draw its expertise in system and information integration, services research, cloud computing, analytics and other emerging scientific areas to help physicians to develop patient entered healthcare systems. As part of this initiative, IBM is collaborating with clinicians in numerous medical institutions and adding medical doctors to its research staff.

Healthcare in China, particularly in remote cities, is often inaccessible and expensive. The Chinese government has pledged 850 billion yuan (US$124 billion) for a healthcare reform that promises to make healthcare services safer and more affordable for China’s 1.3 billion citizens by next year.

Through ePC3, People’s Hospital will be able to create longitudinal electronic health records (EHR) for patients, which will be shared among and updated by patients’ healthcare providers throughout treatment cycles. The longitudinal EHR will enable personalized health assessment and treatment based on patients’ individual medical circumstance. Currently, patients’ medical records are scattered across various healthcare providers, often leading to cumbersome patient referral procedures and wastes time, money and precious medical resources. The hospital aims to consolidate seven to eight internal systems as well as connect more closely with other medical services providers.

“We believe implementing a system such as eP3C could help patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes or high blood pressure by improving the management of their conditions. This ultimately enhances their quality of life and may even increase their lifespan. And that is invaluable,” said Professor Shan Wang, President, Peking University People’s Hospital.

To fulfill People’s Hospital’s goal to provide standard treatment to patients with chronic diseases, ePC3 is applying evidence-based medicine – including standard and best-practice diagnosis, medication, treatment and care plans – to manage the clinical processes of chronic diseases and provide decision support to clinicians at the point of care. During the long running chronic disease management process, it helps patients and clinicians clearly understand what clinical activities took place in the past, what actions should be taken at the point of care, and the next steps to take. The effectiveness of applying guidelines to treat medical conditions will be analyzed, which allows clinicians to improve the clinical process to enhance patient care. The project will focus its initial efforts on diabetic patients in the chronic disease management program.

Developed as part of IBM Research’s First-Of-A-Kind program, ePC3 also provides a healthcare mobile enablement platform to support round-the-clock remote care and monitoring services, timely diagnosis and proactive intervention. In the future, vital physiological data such as body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and cardiogram and blood sugar level could be constantly monitored by mobile devices at their homes and fed into the system instantly. When any change or irregularity happens for a sustained period of time, the system will automatically generate an alert to the patient and his or her healthcare specialists to enable immediate actions.

The hospital plans to provide the new services to patients of selected hospital and community clinics beginning in early 2011. Following the completion of this pilot project, People’s Hospital plans to expand the system to further facilitate a more evidence-based, patient-centric approach across the hospital’s regional network of care. Citizens will be able to obtain medical services in their local community rather than going to urban hospitals for minor illnesses. Patients with more complicated conditions will be referred to central hospitals and specialists.

“As the Chinese government is trying to address the issue of isolated and disparate systems located across hospitals and medical centers, we are excited to participate in the ePC3 project which we believe can contribute to China’s efforts in healthcare reform,” said Dr Thomas Li, director of IBM Research – China & Chief Technology Officer, IBM Greater China Group.

To address the rising demand for information technology-enabled healthcare solutions in China, IBM opened a Healthcare Industry Solutions Lab in Beijing, where IBM experts work with hospitals and medical service providers to develop healthcare and medical systems.

IBM’s track record of helping to improve healthcare through scientific achievements and collaboration with healthcare companies dates back to the 1950s. In the last decade alone, IBM has collaborated with Scripps Research Institute to understand how influenza viruses mutate, worked with European universities to develop better HIV antiretroviral therapy methods and launched the World Community Grid, which has done projects on cancer, aids, dengue fever among other groundbreaking healthcare innovations.

For more information on current IBM Research healthcare efforts, please go here or follow us on Twitter @IBMResearch.

For more information about IBM and healthcare, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/healthcare_solutions/ideas/index.html?re=sph

Media Contact

Sara Delekta Galligan

IBM Communication

408.927.2272

sdelekta@us.ibm.com

Liping Zhu

IBM Media Relations, China

86-10-63612323

zhulp@cn.ibm.com

Harriet Ip

IBM External Relations, GMU

65-6418-1521

harrieti@sg.ibm.com

SOURCE IBM

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Budget ‘short-sighted’ on health

May 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The peak body for medical practitioners has criticised the State Government’s health-focused budget, saying it does not deliver enough for patients.

The Australian Medical Association’s Victorian President, Dr Harry Hemley, says billions of dollars in extra funding for hospitals is a “good start”.

But he says the budget is short-sighted in its plans for the future.

“If we are going to keep our population growing, and look after our aged people, we need more beds,” he said.

“We need a vision for the future, and I’m afraid this budget does not deliver that.”

The State Opposition has echoed the concerns, saying the Government’s promise to build and upgrade hospitals is misleading.

The Opposition Leader, Ted Baillieu, says some of the projects have been funded outside the traditional four-year funding cycle.

“Anybody who wakes up in Bendigo and thinks this is fantastic, the Government have delivered a new hospital, they have got another thing coming to them,” he said.

“There is only $200 million of that hospital funded over the next four years. There is $277 million short in the next four years.”

The Victorian Aboriginal Controlled Health Organisation has also expressed dismay at the Government’s lack of extra funding for indigenous health.

The organisation’s chief executive officer, Jill Gallagher, says the Government should have used the budget to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous life expectancies.

“The health infrastructure dollars, the $4 billion, that is fantastic,” she said.

“We would been happy if one per cent of that had come to indigenous health infrastructure. We are really, really sad and disappointed.”

But not all reactions to Victoria’s 154th budget have been negative.

Tim Piper from the Australian Industry Group has welcomed the Government’s reductions to payroll tax and WorkCover premiums.

“We have got to be happy that the Brumby Government have been able to come through with some decent deductions,” he said.

Brian Walsh from the Master Builders Association is also pleased to see increases to the first homebuyers grant.

“The budget is one which will make builders happy, because there is work for the commercial sector as well as the residential,” he said.

The public transport users association has welcomed spending on new trams and rail infrastructure, but says the package ignores problems with bus services in Melbourne’s outer suburbs.

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Awareness meet on alternative medicine held in Ludhiana

April 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Ludhiana, April 22 (ANI): With a rising concern for health across the world, a lot of people in Punjab are increasingly getting drawn to alternate systems of medicine to escape the side effects of modern-day drugs.

A two-day awareness meet was held here recently to educate people on the traditional systems of medicine in India. ‘Arogya’ – meaning ‘holistic health’ was the ninth such event organised in the country aimed at promoting healthy living in modern-day society.

Organized by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, manufacturers of Indian medicines, practitioners, and people from different walks of life participated in the event.

“This is a choice, which we wanted to make available to the people who are earlier availing mostly the allopathic medicine. Now they have choice of Ayurvedic and homeopathic systems of medicine. There is lot of scope for this system of medicine. About 12-13 years back, a department of Ayurveda was set up in Government of India as independent department and in the state also we have well-qualified doctors of Ayurveda and Homeopathy. We are also promoting homeopathy and Ayurvedic system of medicine with allopathic system of medicine in health institution in the state,” said Rakesh Sharma, Special Secretary for Health in Punjab.

At the fair, 70 manufacturers of Ayurvedic, Siddha, Unani and Homeopathy medicines showcased their products besides interacting with medical practitioners and consumers.he fair highlights the fact that there are diseases that have a more effective treatment option in the Indian systems of medicine.

Moreover, people made a beeline for the free Ayurvedic and Homeopathic OPDs to get check-ups done and avail of the free medicines that were being given out with prescriptions. nother aim of the fair was to provide information to the young generation about the advantages of the traditional systems of Indian medicine.

“The young generation is not very much aware of Ayurveda and to get quick relief from the disease, they adopt the system of allopathic medicine but if they try to understand about Ayurveda, they will know that it has very good results instead of Allopathic treatment,” said Rajni, a trainee doctor.

With increasing faith of people in Indian medicines, a number of super-specialty clinics are now thriving in Punjab.

Dr. Batra’s Homeopathy Clinic, Arogya Clinic and Ashirwad Ayurvedic Health and Panchkarma Centre – just to name a few – are providing complete treatment of ailments. By Karan Kapoor (ANI)

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ICMR Report: Around 25 Lakh People Suffering From Cancer In India

April 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The latest report prepared by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) revealed that there are about 25 lakh cancer patients in India.

ICMR report also said that cancer scenario in the country is quite disturbing as the number of people living with this deadly disease continues to rise.

At a seminar on “New Frontiers in Haematology and Oncology”, Mr. Viswamohan Katoch, Director General Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said, “Cancer scenario in India is not very comfortable and every year there is an increment of 10,000 new cancer patients and the number of total victims stands at about 25 lakh all over.”

The ICMR will back up each and every part of cancer research in the country, Mr. Katoch said that’s why it had been supporting the seminar on cancer, organized by Netaji Subhas Cancer Research Institute (NCRI).

Katoch added that the ICMR has decided to fund a workshop in order to give training to 26,000 rural medical practitioners on the early signs of the disease (cancer) and its prevention over a period of five years through telemedicine system.

“There will be seven centres at Siliguri, Malda, Burdwan, Krishnagar, Bankura, Midnapore and Baruipur, which will be connected with the NCRI,” he said.

NCRI sources also stated that this will help meliorate the health care system relating to cancer care in West Bengal through proper networking.

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Fat Absorb India introduces healthy weight loss programme

March 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, March 24 (ANI/Business Wire India): Fat Absorb India has introduced a healthy weight loss programme which does not require dramatic changes in the lifestyle and has been endorsed by several medical practitioners across the world.

Fat Absorb is the result of an extensive research that has led to the development of this effective and all-natural weight loss solution.

“After extensive research on the available diet pills, fat burners, and other similar diet products, we realized that most of these products contain some kind of non-natural ingredients that can cause temporary or permanent damage to the vital body parts. Fat Absorb has a product that addresses all these concerns and at the same time, gives stable results in double quick time,” said the promoters of http://www.FatAbsorbIindia.com [Fat Absorb] on its launch.

According to the promoters, one of the major highlights of Fat Absorb is its all-natural content without any concoction of chemicals or stimulants. The clinical trials of Fat Absorb have not recorded any known side effects.

The key ingredient of this weight loss product is Chitosan, which is a natural fiber derived from ‘Chitin’, a polysaccharide found in shellfish shells.

Fat Absorb is non-allergenic, i.e., even people with shellfish allergies can safely consume Fat Absorb without any worry because they are allergic to meat, and not the fiber in the shell.

“Chitosan absorbs fats and oils around six to ten times its weight. It combines and binds itself with the fat molecules, and converts them into an unabsorbable form. This process results in consumption and ultimately, passing out of the fat stored in our bodies,” added the promoters of http://www.FatAbsorbIindia.com [Fat Absorb].

“We have laid special emphasis on the need to dispense with the lifestyle changes in order to attain healthy weight loss. With Fat Absorb, losing weight is simply sticking to the schedule of taking a couple of capsules 20 minutes before lunch and dinner.

We do not encourage special diets or supplemental fat loss pills or crash dieting,” said the promoters of ttp://www.FatAbsorbIndia.com [Fat Absorb]. (ANI)

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