Partners HealthCare announced Tuesday that it will deploy the late-binding data warehouse technology developed by Salt Lake City-based Health Catalyst across its two academic medical centers and its community and specialty hospitals.

Additionally, Partners officials said the healthcare system will make an investment in Health Catalyst, working together with researchers there to develop new clinical applications.

The Health Catalyst Late-Binding Data Warehouse is designed to help healthcare institutions store massive quantities of clinical data. It speeds the analysis of clinical and financial data to a process that is measured in days and weeks, not months and years.

Partners expects that Health Catalyst's warehouse platform and analytic accelerators will facilitate data access, discovery, analysis and reporting to help deliver care improvements and cost reductions – revealing actionable information stored inside multiple applications, that can help improve clinical outcomes, increase efficiencies and enhance patient satisfaction.

"Health Catalyst provides us an agile data warehouse approach, and set of tools, to support advanced analytics delivering strategic value to the Partners HealthCare in months rather than years," said Jim Noga, Partners HealthCare's chief information officer, in a press statement.
 
As part of its agreement, Partners HealthCare will create new clinical apps atop Health Catalyst's data warehouse platform. For example, an app might be used to identify patients with congestive heart failure and implement a series of interventions designed to keep them healthy and out of the hospital after discharge, officials say.

"We are excited to be investors in Health Catalyst and working together on several dimensions," said Roger Kitterman, managing director of the Partners Innovation Fund. "Leveraging the analysis that went into selecting them as a partner was critical to our decision."

In a statement, Dan Burton, CEO of Health Catalyst, said his firm is "excited to work together" with Partners HealthCare "to improve healthcare by combining our expertise in data warehousing platforms with Partners' clinical excellence and experience in accountable care."

He added that, "We believe our new co-development relationship with Partners coupled with their investment in Health Catalyst will enable significant innovation and partnership between the two organizations as we work to achieve our common goal of improving the quality of care while lowering its cost."

[See also: Data demand fuels Health Catalyst growth]