IBM and Premier healthcare alliance plan to integrate health information from across hospitals and other healthcare sites, creating a model that Premier and IBM executives say will benefit more than 2,400 hospitals and thousands of other healthcare sites.

IBM and Premier are billing their project as an industry-first technology platform to gain insights into and measure and improve the health of the population. The project, they say, will support hospitals, doctors and other health providers in working together to enhance patient safety while reducing the overuse of procedures, readmissions, unnecessary ER visits and hospital-acquired conditions.
 
Recent research from the Institute of Medicine and the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests enhanced use of health data is needed to reduce fragmentation of medical information that results in higher medical costs and increased likelihood of adverse medical events. In most healthcare settings, the data needed to make these improvements is stored in many different formats and multiple locations. This same information also needs to be made more accessible to support accountable care organizations mandated under the Affordable Care Act that reimburse providers for quality of care, not volume of care.
 
"We know that effective data can improve outcomes, reduce readmissions and eliminate duplicative and unnecessary care," said Lynn Miller, executive vice president, clinical operations at Geisinger Health System. "Doctors, hospitals and insurance companies using information-sharing platforms set the true foundation for redesigning how healthcare is delivered and paid for."
 
For patients, this means greater certainty they will get the most effective treatment possible, she said. It will also provide better assurance that the care they receive follows best practices from leading hospitals and healthcare experts across the nation. In addition, the model will enable comparative effectiveness by demonstrating how effectively various medical treatments improve health outcomes and conditions. 
 
"For the first time, all members in the healthcare system will be able to easily access data that is consistent and unified to help reduce preventable harm and waste," said Susan DeVore, president and CEO of Premier. "This has been the missing link in helping move the mark on evidence-based medicine by using new insight to transform the quality and cost-effectiveness of care. It's a win-win-win for providers, patients and payers – care is more effective, people are happier and spend less time in care settings, and excess costs are reduced."

Indicators of expected outcomes
Results from Premier's QUEST initiative show the improvements that could be made in the inpatient setting alone by incorporating this type of data sharing model. The project's 157 participating hospitals saved an estimated 22,164 lives and reduced healthcare spending by $2.13 billion. Estimates projected an additional 64,000 lives and $23 billion could have been saved if all hospitals in the country had been able to achieve results similar to those in QUEST.
 
Participants in Premier's Accountable Care Implementation Collaborative will leverage the model to exchange data. The collaborative is composed of 25 health systems with more than 90 hospitals and 5,000 physicians providing care for 1.4 million patients across 19 states. They include: Billings Clinic; Bon Secours Health System Inc.; Fairview Health Services; Geisinger Health System; North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System; Presbyterian Healthcare Services; Summa Health System; and Texas Health Resources. Premier will begin to offer these capabilities to its more than 2,400 member hospitals and 70,000-plus other care sites beginning in spring 2011.
 
"Without access to this data, the majority of providers simply cannot offer the type of accountable care that regulations require and patients deserve," said Dan Pelino, general manager, IBM healthcare and life sciences (pictured at right). "Our work with Premier will help clinical, administrative and financial decision makers easily and efficiently access information that could improve care. This is a necessity to transform healthcare delivery, bending the cost curve while improving the quality of care."
 
The initiative will access Premier's clinical, financial and operational comparative database, a compilation of inpatient data containing nearly 40 percent of all U.S. hospital discharges. It will also incorporate non-hospital data (physician practice and other ambulatory settings) and health plan data. Examples of this data include:
Clinical data regarding how care was delivered and related outcomes; supply chain data that incorporates clinical outcomes with costs; and operational data regarding labor efficiency and overall operating costs.
 
The technology
The new industry standard, pre-integrated platform for data acquisition, transformation, real time validation and meaningful metrics is built on the IBM Health Integration Network. It is powered by IBM Smarter Analytics System with DB2 data warehouse. The IBM information management portfolio is used to acquire, transform and create a single view of each constituent or entity. Master Data Management, identity resolution and acquisition will be provided by Initiate Software. The data is then integrated and validated, and clinical or business rules management is applied through WebSphere. Tivoli software provides security and service management. Application development is built upon Rational software and a common user experience and collaboration is provided through Lotus software. The entire system runs on IBM POWER7 technology.