IBM and vitagroup kick off a ground-breaking project to build a pioneering clinical data platform in catalonia
Industry News | June 23, 2023, 9:53 a.m.
Barcelona, June 22, 2023 The IBM Group has been awarded the public tender, governed by Centre de Telecomunicacions i Tecnologies de la Informació (CTTI) de la Generalitat de Catalunya and will make it possible in collaboration with vitagroup and Red Hat as main partners.
The main outcome is to provide a full end-to-end clinical data platform (based on vitagroup’s HIP Clinical Data Repository) that will unify and homogenize the electronic health record for the whole region of Catalonia, serving more than 7.5 million inhabitants, using an openEHR-based data approach. This standardized data platform is considered the backbone of the digital transformation strategy of the Catalonian Health Service (CatSalut).
The recent pandemic highlighted how crucial collaboration can be. Plus, new regulations mandate a new level of patient access to health data—and require healthcare providers to share and exchange large and diverse volumes of health information faster and more reliably than ever. However, when each healthcare organization uses its own data standards and models, sharing electronic health records (EHR) is highly inefficient—and far less secure.
The Philips Future Health Index 2021 found that difficulties with data management (44%) and lack of healthcare interoperability and data standards (37%) present the biggest barriers to the adoption of digital health information technology in hospitals and healthcare facilities.
By creating a common language and a common approach to healthcare data sharing, standards open the door to partnerships that weren’t possible before. Open data exchange can spark game-changing innovations that could reshape the healthcare industry—and allow each provider to get a more comprehensive view of a patient’s health.
IBM & vitagroup's vision will allow all clinical professionals in Catalonia to read patient information with the same semantics, since now each hospital and primary care center works with different models and this platform standardizes it.
Project leader Jordi Piera Jimenez, Director of the Digital Health Strategy Office in Catalonia, says: "The deployment of the Clinical Data Repository (CDR) following the openEHR specification, is a major milestone in the implementation of our Digital Health Strategy. The CDR is at the centre of our digital health platform and the main technological piece allowing us to build our new longitudinal patient-centric EHR”.
“We are very pleased to have obtained this tender to implement such a pioneering project in which Catalonia has been the first Spanish region to commit to the use of Open EHR. We are aware that, in addition to having highlighted our proposal for our expertise, having partners such as Viewnext, Red Hat and vitagroup, as well as the design of the architecture, has been the differential factor to get it.“ said Olga Blanco, Vicepresident & Senior Partner - Public Sector Leader Spain at IBM Consulting
Stefan Schraps, Vice President Business & Community Management at vitagroup, says: “We are incredibly proud to be delivering this project with IBM and the other strong partners. It proves that we have been on the right track for more than five years with our mission of an open source-based platform ecosystem, focused on semantic interoperability. The project has the potential to lead the way in reforming the global healthcare landscape.”
About IBM Consulting
IBM Consulting is the catalyst for business transformation. With deep industry expertise spanning strategy, experience design, technology, and operations, we have become the trusted partner to over 3,000 of the world’s most innovative and valuable companies. Our 160,000 consultants embrace an open way of working, bringing a diverse set of voices, experiences and technologies like Hybrid Cloud and AI together to accelerate business transformation. Supported by IBM Garage, our proven co-creation method, we bring speed and scale to innovation with an enduring ecosystem of technology leaders to deliver solutions for some of the world’s most complex challenges. We collaborate closely, ideate freely, and apply breakthrough innovations that drive sustainable change and re-invent how business gets done. Find out more at IBM.com/consulting
About vitagroup
At vitagroup, more than 300 specialists across Germany work day after day to sustainably improve healthcare through advanced technology and intelligent services. Our digital products and networked solutions are already realising what many consider to be a dream of the future. For more than 20 years, we have successfully established innovative healthcare solutions and services in the market. All our knowledge and experience is bundled in our HIP Clinical Data Repository (HIP CDR). With our strong team of experts - from interoperability specialists, JAVA developers, UX designers and data protection experts to project managers and physicians - we are the reliable partner for all stakeholders in a networked, patient-centred healthcare system of the future.
For better care, better prevention and better diagnosis. But above all for better health. vitagroup – HEALTH INTELLIGENCE >> vitagroup.ag
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