Health IT Boosts Patient Care, Safety

Inova Health System has selected a suite of Oracle Health Sciences products to help the healthcare delivery organization support interoperability as well as gain better access to and insight from digitized medical records.

Announced Tuesday, Inova, a Northern Va.-based, non-profit healthcare provider network serving more than one million people annually, said it will use Oracle's technology to create a data services hub that links patient information through an interoperable informatics infrastructure across operational, clinical care, and research domains.

Executives from both companies said the technology will help Inova unlock the value of data captured in disparate healthcare transactional systems to accelerate research and yield new clinical and translational insight.

John Niederhuber, executive VP of Inova Health System, said in a statement that the health industry is entering a new era where advances in our molecular understanding of disease, coupled with adoption of health IT, can produce personalized, predictive medicine for patients. "However, today's electronic medical records systems (EMRs) were not designed to support this new paradigm of research and care," said Niederhuber. "We are pleased to team with Oracle Health Sciences to make our vision of the future of healthcare a reality for Inova's patients, physicians, and community."

Inova will use an integrated suite of Oracle solutions including Oracle Healthcare Transaction Base, Oracle Healthcare Master Person Index, Oracle Database 11g, Oracle Real Application Clusters, and several components of Oracle Fusion Middleware, including Oracle WebLogic Suite 11g and Oracle SOA Suite 11g.

The new informatics environment will break down health data silos to deliver actionable insight that can help Inova Health System drive continuous improvement in quality of care and operational efficiency, said executives from both companies.

"The future of healthcare will be characterized by a more personalized, predictive, participatory care environment where scientific advances are integrated with new delivery models to improve population and individualized health," Neil de Crescenzo, senior VP and general manager of Oracle Health Sciences, said in a statement. "Forward-looking organizations, such as Inova Health System, understand that achieving this transformation will require new business models, as well as informatics infrastructures that go beyond today's transactional systems."

As part of its informatics initiative, Inova will use the Oracle Health Sciences solution to help the region's 4,000 affiliated physicians achieve meaningful use of healthcare IT, as well as move toward an accountable care model -- a critical requirement as healthcare reform is implemented and pay-for-performance and similar initiatives become more widespread. The new infrastructure will also help enable personalized care management programs within the community to help prevent or delay the onset of disease.