The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is investing $2 billion in three new hospitals being designed in collaboration with Microsoft. 

Microsoft is helping to design the IT infrastructure to take advantage of the latest technology and data analysis, UPMC said. 

All three "digital hospitals," as UPMC is calling its newest specialty facilities, are brick and mortar structures to be built on existing UPMC hospital campuses.

The Vision and Rehabilitation Hospital will be built as an addition to the existing UPMC Mercy. It is expected to open in 2020.

The Hillman Cancer Hospital will be built as an addition to UPMC Shadyside Hospital and is slated to open in 2022. 

The Heart and Transplant Hospital will be built near UPMC Presbyterian and will eventually become its replacement hospital.

The hospitals will provide innovative treatments for cancer, heart disease, transplantation, diseases of aging, vision restoration and rehabilitation, among many others, CEO Jeffrey A. Romoff said. 

"Working in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, we will radically change healthcare as we know it to provide personalized, effective and compassionate care," Romoff said. "At the core, these digitally-based specialty hospitals are the expression of our cutting-edge translational science creating treatments and cures for the most devastating diseases."

Microsoft is collaborating with UPMC in designing these digital hospitals of the future, he said.

"Building on our existing research collaboration with Microsoft and its Azure cloud platform, we will apply technology in ways that will transform what today is often a disjointed and needlessly complex experience for patients and clinicians," Romoff said. "UPMC and Microsoft will have more to share in the coming months."

Designs for the UPMC Heart and Transplant Hospital and the UPMC Hillman Cancer Hospital will be selected in an international design competition.

UPMC has other advanced specialty care facilities at Magee-Womens Hospital, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

The $2 billion investment is in addition to UPMC's annual capital commitments of nearly $1 billion and will result in no increase in inpatient beds.

Twitter: @SusanJMorse
Email the writer: susan.morse@himssmedia.com