This story has been edited from its original version to clarify some aspects of the news.

This week, HIMSS Analytics revealed the first hospital to be validated against the Stage 6 standards of the Infrastructure Adoption Model (INFRAM): King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh.

WHY IT MATTERS

The INFRAM, introduced towards the end of last year, is an eight-stage international benchmark that analyses the maturity level of a healthcare provider organisation's IT infrastructure, focusing on five areas: mobility, security, collaboration, transport and data centre.

"We have seen health systems engage with advanced clinical applications, only to later find out their infrastructure that isn't powerful enough to support their tools," explained Blain Newton, HIMSS Analytics executive vice president.

"With the INFRAM, healthcare providers can develop a detailed, strategic technology plan that defines their organization's current state, desired future state, and each stage in between to achieve truly patient-centric digital healthcare," Newton added.

The eight stages of the model are:

• Stage 7: Adaptive and flexible network control with software defined networking; home-based tele-monitoring; internet/TV on demand
• Stage 6: Software defined network automated validation of experience; on-premise enterprise/hybrid cloud application and infrastructure automation
• Stage 5: Video on mobile devices; location-based messaging; firewall with advanced malware protection; real-time scanning of hyperlinks in email messages
• Stage 4: Multiparty video capabilities; wireless coverage throughout most premises; active/active high availability; remote access VPN
• Stage 3: Advanced intrusion prevention system; rack/tower/blade server-based compute architecture; end-to-end QoS; defined public and private cloud strategy
• Stage 2: Intrusion detection/prevention; informal security policy; disparate systems centrally managed by multiple network management systems
• Stage 1: Static network configurations; fixed switch platform; active/standby failover; LWAP-only single wireless controller; ad-hoc local storage networking; no data center automation
• Stage 0: No VPN, intrusion detection/prevention, security policy, data center or compute architecture.

“An INFRAM Stage 6 organisation is able to demonstrate that it has the strategy, governance, technology and culture to ensure the employment of an advanced infrastructure capable of fully supporting the operational, financial and clinical well-being of a health care provider,” added John Daniels, HIMSS Analytics global vice president.

In addition to the INFRAM, the HIMSS Analytics suite of maturity models includes the CCMM (Continuity of Care Maturity Model), AMAM (Adoption Model for Analytics Maturity), DIAM (Digital Imaging Adoption Model), EMRAM (Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model) and O-EMRAM (Outpatient EMR Adoption Model).

ON THE RECORD

Towards the end of 2017, King Abdulaziz Medical City became the first organisation in the world to reach Stage 6 of the DIAM, and, this week, it has also been validated against the Stage 7 standards of the O-EMRAM.

Dr Raed Al-Hazme, chief information officer at the ministry of national guard and health affairs (MNG-HA), said the achievements reflected their commitment to the deployment and adoption of technology.

In discussing King Abdulaziz Medical City’s O-EMRAM accomplishment, John Rayner, HIMSS Analytics regional director for EMEA, said: “It is important for patients who do not require a visit to the hospital to be able to receive care in an ambulatory setting or in their own home.

“MNG-HA has developed a mobile application for conducting clinic visits virtually, through a secure VPN connection. Selecting the appropriate health care setting is important if we are to promote patient involvement and co-creation.”