IBM unveiled new software to help avert public health crises, in San Francisco yesterday. The Health care Collaborative Network (HCN) will allow health care workers to share critical information and access data from conflicting databases. The system will connect the doctor’s diagnosis and prescription with real-time information about a hospitalised patient, while ensuring patient privacy.
James Rinaldi, chief information officer for the US Food and Drug Administration, said to Reuters: “The doctor knows what the patient should be prescribed. The pharmacy knows what was prescribed. The hospital knows how a patient is responding.” A national electronic network would alert medical practitioners to unusual medical patterns, help them to identify the origin and spread of a problem, and target solutions.
The system was developed with US health agencies and private hospitals to cope with problems such as the anthrax attacks in 2002, but will also recognise flu and contaminated food-related outbreaks. The software can also track long-term conditions such as diabetes and highlight adverse drug interactions.
The software was designed for local and regional medical communities, and Canada’s government will pilot an early warning and response system for biological threats in Winnipeg. The software has been tested and validated by selected hospitals around the US, according to IBM.
IBM’s middleware will bridge the gap between incompatible medical databases and help identify patterns – a task that previously took up to two years, according to Jim Gabler, an analyst with Gartner Inc. speaking to Reuters. “This sort of software is just going to speed that up,” he said.