Virtua Health, a four-hospital system in New Jersey, is rolling out technology that pulls data onto one platform to give clinicians timely critical information on their patients.

Physicians at Virtua Health will use the Amalga suite from Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, to aggregate a wide range of clinical and patient data pulled from isolated systems across the Virtua Health Network. Amalga's aggregation capabilities make it possible for physicians to have a more comprehensive view of all of a patient's data and thus make the best decisions about a patient's care.

In addition, physicians will use Amalga to stay closely connected to and informed about the status of patient cases across the Virtua Health Network and maintain continuity of care.

"Providing our physicians with real-time access to comprehensive patient information is critical to improving the efficiency and quality of care," said Mark Van Kooy, MD, medical director of informatics at Virtua Health. "Amalga will let us pull together data in new ways - giving us transparency and streamlining key processes. Using Amalga, our physicians will spend less time tracking down information and more time making smart decisions and caring for patients."

As an example, Van Kooy said, a patient admitted to Virtua Health for the second of two knee replacements may have data from his first procedure stored throughout the hospital. That data could be found in disparate technology systems that support the records of specialized departments responsible for anesthesia, blood, recovery and the operating room. There could also be data stored in a rehabilitation center, a nursing facility or with a primary care provider. Since these separate systems do not automatically exchange information, physicians could not easily get a complete view of the patient's previous experience at Virtua.

Physicians will soon have access to a complete set of a patient's data. They can quickly pull up a customized view of all the data to see all the relevant clinical information about the patient in one place.

 "If I am in a situation where I need the immediate status of a patient, as well as all results of my patient's encounters throughout the hospital, I will be able to access it in real time," Van Kooy said. "As a practicing physician, this level of superior patient care is one of the most important benefits Amalga will bring,"